Photo by Deb Gau Guests stepped up to a blackjack table at “The Social,” a fundraiser event for the Marshall Area YMCA, on Thursday night

MARSHALL — It was meant to be a night of fun — but fun with a purpose, Jamie Nauman said.

Marshall area community members gathered Thursday night to support financial assistance programs at the Marshall Area YMCA.

“Ultimately, what this is, is fundraising to help community members,” said Naurman, the new interim CEO of the Marshall Area YMCA.

It was also a chance to highlight a campaign for some big future projects at the Y. Nauman said YMCA supporters are working toward a financial goal of $750,000 to build an indoor play area, renovate the fitness area, and make other updates at the facility.

“This is an exciting time,” Nauman said.

This is the second year that YMCA supporters organized “The Social,” a night of food, silent auctions and casino-style games to raise funds for Y scholarships.

“Last year, we really wanted the event to highlight our 20th anniversary,” Nauman said. “It really did bring in a lot of people with diverse backgrounds.”

The chance to bring people together was part of the reason the YMCA brought The Social back this year. The gathering was a good opportunity to highlight a major campaign for the Y. Nauman said the campaign had the tagline, “Play, Power, Purpose,” to go along with three different phases.

One key part of the campaign was the plan to convert the Y’s two existing racquetball courts into an indoor play area. The project would fill a need within the Marshall area community, YMCA supporters said.

“There was a need for indoor spaces for families,” said Ron Halgerson, who is part of the capital campaign for the project. “There isn’t a place that’s dedicated to kids.”

Halgerson said the project would take the racquetball courts — an underutilized space at the Y facility — and instead create an indoor play area. Nauman said the play area would include two different play structures, one for school-aged children and one for toddlers.

Having an indoor play area wouldn’t just be a year-round resource for area residents, Nauman said.

“We feel this would also be huge for people coming into the community,” she said.

Visitors would be able to come to the play area with a Y guest pass.

The second portion of the campaign was to renovate the Y’s fitness area and weight room. The plan would “revamp the entire upstairs” of the facility, Nauman said. The renovation would include some new fitness and wellness equipment, including adaptive motion equipment. The renovations would also allow space for different kinds of training, she said.

The third portion of the campaign covered important ongoing maintenance and infrastructure updates at the YMCA. Halgerson said the list of things that needed updating ranged from water heaters and fire alarm systems, to carpeting and seating.

Along with the capital campaign, the YMCA is pursuing some grant funding to help support the renovations, Halgerson said.

“We’re excited about it,” Nauman said of the campaign. “We’re really hoping we have community support behind us.”