CLARION, Pa. (EYT) — When Mike Hindman and Bruan Gourley were growing up in Clarion, there was no YMCA, but the owners of M&B Services wanted to ensure that their children and others would be able to benefit from a new full-service Clarion County YMCA.
“We feel it’s important to help provide our children, and other children in the county, with opportunities that we never had,” said Mike and Braun. “That’s why we wanted to be involved in this project.”
(Pictured are Jesse Kelley and Al Lander YMCA campaign leadership, Kristen Hindman, Mike Hindman, Braun Gourley, Holly Gourley, and Milissa Bauer, also campaign leadership.)
The involvement includes a $50,000.00 contribution to the YMCA as part of the $8.1 million campaign to build a new YMCA building.
The $8.1 million full-service Clarion County YMCA will be located near Exit 62 of I-80 and the Clarion Oaks Golf Course.
Above all, the M&B partners want to make a positive influence on Clarion County.
“People focus too much on the negative aspects of daily life,” said Hindman. “Braun and I feel the Y project is going to be such a positive influence on this area. We wanted to get involved. We are hopeful that this project will spur for more local support for local growth.”
The new project, among other facilities, will include a swimming pool that will provide lap swimming, therapy, swimming lessons, and other year-round recreation activities.
Hindman and Gourley started in the construction business in 2003. Together they built a successful concrete construction business, M and B Services, LLC, building anything from residential sidewalks to bridges. On April 1, 2014, Mike and Braun purchased Glenn Redi-Mix, a supplier of ready-mix concrete, and renamed the business M and B Redi-Mix Inc. These two companies are held by the M and B Group. The M and B Group employs between 80 and 90 people.
M&B Vice President Gourley’s great grandfather started Lawrence Brothers in 1919, and it remained in the family until 1984 when purchased by the Glenn family. The recent purchase of Glenn Redi-Mix brings it full circle.
“We strive to continue the strong business relationships both the Lawrence and Glenn families have built over the last 95 years,” said Gourley.
M&B Redi-Mix is one of the oldest, continuously family-owned businesses in the Clarion County community. The history of the company spans nearly a century. It began when Charles M. Lawrence created a concrete construction company in 1919. His sons, Ross and Ev Lawrence, began working for their father while still in high school. Following their wartime service, the brothers created a company that was innovative and progressive in Clarion County, Lawrence Brothers, Inc. One can take a look around Clarion Borough and the county and see many of the concrete projects supplied by the Lawrence’s over the years. The University expansion, along with the Interstate 80 expansion of the ’60’s provided much contract work for the company during that time.
Cementing its history with the community, M&B hopes to see the area grow, and the new YMCA is an important ingredient in the mix.
