The YMCA-YWCA of the Central Okanagan's Story

The YMCA-YWCA of the Central Okanagan is one of Canada’s youngest Associations.  It was established in 1980 on a foundation of memories.  Founders Linda and David Cline, with a small group of friends, wanted to create a Y in Kelowna to share their childhood YMCA experiences with children and other families living in the Okanagan.

Good memories also sustain us as an Association.  This journal entry and YMCA hotel receipt from 1945 connects a young 19-year old soldier named Reynolds to the YMCA during World War II.  When on leave, he travelled in England staying in YMCAs where he found a clean, safe and affordable refuge from the war. Those memories inspired him to support our Y as an annual donor and more recently with a transformational donation to our capital building campaign. He also kept receipts of his travels during his posting in England and after the war as he hitch-hiked throughout North America.

This journal entry and hotel receipts demonstrate that lasting memories and relationships are created by the YMCA.  They are what sustain us from generation to generation.