CHAMPAIGN – When he used to drive by the Champaign County YMCA, Fellowship of Christian Athletes Regional Director Tim Johnson couldn't help but think to himself about what an incredible resource it could be.

But he didn't realize just how much of a resource the YMCA could be until he read about a Champaign mother's quest to build an all-inclusive play space where developmentally disabled children like her daughter, Larkin, would feel welcome.

"I said, Larkin's Place should be in the YMCA," Johnson said.

And so it will.

The YMCA facility under development in southwest Champaign will now be twice the originally planned size so it can include Larkin's Place, named for 3-year-old Larkin Armstrong, who was born with Down syndrome.

The new YMCA had been planned to be a 40,000-square-foot building that would cost about $10.5 million.

But with the inclusion of Larkin's Place, the YMCA board is now planning to build an 80,000-square-foot building that will cost about $20 million, said Kay Machula, a YMCA board member who has been chairing the fund drive for the new facility.

Fundraising, which had been going on separately for Larkin's Place and the new YMCA, has been merged and is well under way, with a $5 million gift from a donor who wishes to remain anonymous, Machula said. The projected opening date and location of the new facility remain the same, she added.

The YMCA still hopes to have its new building on Windsor Road, east of Staley Road, ready to open in 2010, and has until the end of that year to move out of its current building at 500 W. Church St., C. That building was sold, and the YMCA is now leasing it until the move.

A brand-new YMCA board was seated Thursday, and it now includes, along with Machula, both Johnson and Larkin's mother, Amy Armstrong of Champaign. Also included are David Hood, a partner with Martin Hood Friese & Associates; Greg Lykins, vice chairman of First Busey Corp.; Rick Stephens, president of Horizon Hobby; and Jean Driscoll, associate director of development of the University of Illinois Applied Health Sciences Department, Machula said.

It was Armstrong who first envisioned the concept of a recreational facility designed for all generations and levels of ability – where kids like her daughter and typically functioning children alike would fit in equally and learn to understand each other through play.

Children aren't gaining that kind of understanding in the schools, Machula said.

"This will be one way to resolve that," she added. "Everyone is equal."

Armstrong and Machula say the YMCA and Larkin's Place are a match made in heaven because they share the same Christian values and mission of nurturing mind, body and spirit.

The YMCA can also nurture another goal of Armstrong's through Larkin's Place: To give parents of children with disabilities a place to meet in a recreational setting and support each other. Parents with developmentally disabled children say there are few such social outlets in Champaign County for their families, especially as their children with disabilities get older.

Armstrong said she has already seen what being out of her home with other kids is doing for Larkin's development. Since she started attending the Early Childhood Center at Stratton Elementary School, Larkin, who also has a catastrophic seizure disorder, can now communicate one word through a motion of her hand and toddle around with the help of a walker.

"We're seeing her come to life, and the key is being around other children," Armstrong said.

Machula said a lot of parents of kids with special needs want to shelter their children at home, but Armstrong has taken the opposite approach.

"We want to break that barrier for a lot of families," she said.

Johnson, a former YMCA chief executive in Wichita, Kan., said he loves the idea of a place where children can come together, "and all of us be one."

He also likes the potential he sees for more collaboration between the YMCA and other organizations in the community, he said.

"It's the start of a message of a huge collaborative effort for the community, as in, who else can we work together with in the area of recreation, youth and leadership development," he said.

The way Johnson sees it, Larkin's Place and the YMCA more than belong together.

"I think it will be a special blessing for the community," he said.