YMCA presents The Wagers Thursday night

Dave Bratcher has been serving as the director for YMCA of the Mid-South in rural West Tennessee for well over two years now.

He still has to answer a few basic questions about the organization that's based in Memphis but has been working to expand through rural West Tennessee since they brought him on their staff in early 2022.

"The main question I get is 'When is the Y coming back to Jackson?'" Bratcher said. "And I tell them, the Y has been in Jackson for a couple years now, but we're not back in the way you think of it.

"But that's not to say we won't ever be back to that."

What most people are thinking of is the fitness center that was on Campbell Street for years before it shut down in 2015.

The Y's current form in Jackson is the form it's taking in a number of towns in rural West Tennessee, and that's childcare for most of the locations.

"The job of the Y is to provide for each town what that town needs," Bratcher said. "Whether that's childcare, before/after school care, meals, a gym and swim site, whatever."

YMCA of the Mid-South has grown how many meals it's given out in summer months to children in need who weren't in school.

That number grew to 308,000 meals in 12 cities this past summer.

But all that help isn't free, and YMCA needs funds to pay for all that work and to compensate the people coordinating that work.

That's why they're hosting an inaugural event in Jackson on Thursday, The Wagers.

It's a casino night based in a location made to look like a New Orleans speak easy.

"We knew Sacred Heart of Jesus High School did a casino night, and since that school closed, that opened the opportunity for us to have a casino.

"We thought this would be something great to have that's not like most other events that happen in Jackson."

There were some different aspects about this event, like the location. The exact location was kept a secret until the last few days.

"We gave people clues for about a month before and tried to keep it a secret. We wanted that to be another twist about this event just to add some intrigue to it."

The party will be at one of the hangars at McKellar-Sipes Regional Airport. Party-goers will be directed to park their vehicles in the parking lot of TCAT Jackson, and a shuttle bus will ferry people to the party and back to their cars later.

"I don't remember an event in Jackson with anything like this, so I feel like one goal has been accomplished already," Bratcher said.

Because the state of Tennessee outlaws actual gambling, everyone will be given a certain amount of "funny money" to use in their gaming. 

"They can purchase more funny money if they want," Bratcher said. "If they run out and want to keep playing."

Funds raised at the event will go toward funding the mission of YMCA.

Bratcher said the organization has secured a couple of state grants that will allow them to transform a building in Ripley and another in Somerville into childcare facilities in conjunction with the YMCA and another region-wide corporate partner Bratcher made sure to reach out to in 2022 when his work with the organization was just beginning.

"West Tennessee Healthcare and UT Martin are two entities that are big hitters in the region of West Tennessee and have locations or reach into nearly every county of the region," Bratcher said. "So I went after them very early to ensure we could count on them as partners.

"So because of that, it's not by happenstance that two childcare facilities we plan to open next year - Ripley and Somerville - are in towns where UTM has their satellite centers. With childcare available nearby, hopefully that will encourage more people in Lauderdale and Fayette counties to get their degree and get to work in their chosen field."

And that kind of work is what funds raised at The Wagers will go toward.

"Any help for us is help for West Tennessee, so we hope to see a big crowd next week," Bratcher said.

Brandon Shields, brandon@jacksonpost.news