Photo by Derek Redd The Bordas & Bordas Law Firm has donated $250,000 to the Wheeling YMCA. Pictured are, from left, Bordas & Bordas partner Geoff Brown, YMCA Executive Director Adam Shinsky, Bordas & Bordas co-founder and partner Linda Bordas, and Bordas & Bordas managing partner Jamie Bordas.

Jamie Bordas’ relationship with the Wheeling YMCA runs long and deep. He remembers playing basketball in its gym and pickup football on the field beside it, waiting for his parents to pick him up after work. He has watched his children grow as athletes and as people through its programs. He has been the YMCA’s board president for nearly two decades.

And, on Tuesday, the managing partner of the Bordas & Bordas law firm presented the YMCA with a $250,000 donation, which will help the organization as it completes a major renovation to its facilities.

In honor of the donation, the Y will name its football field after the firm.

“So many people, including ourselves, have had kids involved with activities at the YMCA,” Bordas said, “and it’s a very important part of our community in providing services to people when they need it, whether it’s afterschool care, whether it’s programs or other things that the YMCA provides. So this was a natural fit for us.”

The Wheeling YMCA is nearing the homestretch of a $7 million renovation project that will radically transform the facility. The Elm Grove building already sports a new lobby, gym and extended childcare room. When construction is finished, the facility will include a new second-floor fitness center with walking track, as well as new spin bike and aerobics areas and a multipurpose turf room.

YMCA Executive Director Adam Shinsky said construction should be complete by late January and the renovated facility should be fully functional by February.

Shinsky said the Bordas & Bordas donation will go a long way to pushing that toward the finish line, thanks to a family who long has made the Wheeling YMCA’s success a priority.

Shinsky remembers when he was just starting out at the Y, overseeing its sports programs, when the late Jim Bordas, who founded the firm with wife Linda, walked into the lobby and asked to talk to him.

“He would ask if kids needed help with their fees,” Shinsky said. “He’d ask if we needed basketballs and what other equipment we needed. It’s just a very giving family.”

That giving spans generations. Jamie Bordas’ daughter Alexis, now a women’s basketball player at Duquesne University, won an unprecedented three Gatorade West Virginia Girls Basketball Player of the Year awards while at Wheeling Park High School. That award comes with a $1,000 donation to the cause of the player’s choice. Each time, she picked the Wheeling YMCA.

The Bordas family feels the Wheeling YMCA’s mission to help children throughout the community is crucial. Linda Bordas remembers the afternoons when her kids would walk over to the YMCA after school at St. Vincent’s Elementary and Jim Bordas would pick them up while Linda was in Morgantown finishing law school or she would pick them up after she started practicing.

Being a space where parents can trust their children to go is more important than ever, Linda Bordas said.

“Daycare is such a tremendous problem in every area,” she said. “And to have a place that people can bring their children when they have a day off, if there’s a snow day … what are you going to do for a babysitter?

“And to know that your kids are going to be with other kids and be engaged and they’re going to have activities to do, not just be in front of the TV or playing video games, that’s important,” she added.

Everyone involved is eager to see what the finished product of the Y renovations will look like, as it will usher the organization into a new era.

“It’s stuff we’ve never had before,” Shinsky said. “It’s very exciting.”