Wanakita's next chapter starts with you: YMCA launches fundraising campaign for Wayne Perkins Leadership Centre at YMCA Wanakita
There’s a moment at Wanakita—one every camper, counsellor, teacher, and family knows.
It happens as the sun lifts across Koshlong Lake and the pines stir in the morning breeze. It’s the unmistakable feeling that you’re part of something bigger: a place where friendships take root, where confidence grows, and where future leaders quietly begin to discover who they are.
For more than 70 years, YMCA Wanakita—operated by the YMCA of Hamilton | Burlington | Brantford—has shaped thousands of young people through outdoor education, overnight camp, family camp, and the transformative Student Counsellor (SC) program. Teens have arrived unsure of themselves and left with lifelong friends, resilience, and a deep sense of belonging.
We are pleased to share an important milestone in our Y Saves Lives campaign: the launch of the public fundraising phase for the Wayne Perkins Leadership Centre at YMCA Wanakita.
A year‑round hub designed to nurture leadership, strengthen community, and build confidence, the Leadership Centre will ensure future generations experience the same life‑changing impact Wanakita has offered for decades.
With the generosity of early supporters, alumni, families, and partners, the project is already more than 75% funded. Construction is well underway. The walls are rising. The vision is taking shape.
But the final stretch—the last $600,000—is where our community shines.
“The Student Counsellor program has been the heartbeat of Wanakita for generations,” says Andy Gruppe, Vice President of Overnight Camp & Outdoor Education at YMCA Wanakita. “The Wayne Perkins Leadership Centre is more than a building—it’s a promise that we will continue shaping leaders who care, who connect, and who carry the spirit of Wanakita with them long after they leave.”
“So much personal growth happens here,” says Robin Connor, YMCA Wanakita alum and donor to the Leadership Centre.
“You get better people coming out, and I think they feel better about themselves. People learn and overcome a lot at camp. It’s important to me to support this place that has given me so much.”
The Leadership Centre will support Wanakita’s renowned two-year Student Counsellor leadership program, overnight camps, and Outdoor Centre school groups. It honours the legacy of mentors like Wayne Perkins—leaders who believed in young people and helped thousands discover their potential.
Now, we’re inviting the broader YMCA and Wanakita community to help finish what we’ve started.
Every gift brings us closer to opening a space where teens rise into leadership, students learn in and from nature, and the spirit of mentorship continues to thrive.
We are close.
The finish line is in sight.
And together, we can build a place where future generations stand at the edge of Koshlong Lake and feel what so many before them have felt:
I belong here.
I can lead.
I can make a difference.
Join us. Help build the future of leadership at YMCA Wanakita.
