History

In 1955, the Champlin Foundation donated 117 acres of wooded land – with two spring-fed ponds – to the Kent County YMCA. Two years later, the organization built Champlin Lodge on the Centerville Road property. That building housed its first nursery school –  the Wise Owl Nursery.

Camp Ok-Wa-Nessett, a day camp that the Kent County YMCA opened in 1948 at Oakland Beach, relocated in 1957 to the idyllic property the organization now owned. Today, Camp Ok-Wa-Nessett attracts as many as 1,000 campers a day during the summer, making it one of the largest day camps in the state.

Among the campers are children whose learning or physical disabilities may have prevented them from ever enjoying a camping experience. The Trailblazer Program is an inclusionary summer camp program for children in preschool through Grade 8 who are identified through their IEP (Individual Education Plan) as having social, emotional, physical and educational needs that must be addressed through an ESY (Extended School Year) program. The Rhode Island Shriners have provided a great deal of support for the program, as have many local businesses.

A YMCA program developed in the 1970s to reduce juvenile delinquency continues to enjoy much success at the Kent County YMCA. The National Youth Program Using Minibikes (NYPUM) rewards children with expeditions on minibikes who stay out of trouble. Many of the schools in Kent County have built the program into their curriculum.

Prime Time/Family Time launched in 1996, a program devoting two evenings a week to families, providing activities that family members can do separately or together. The program was an immediate hit and two years later the YMCA of the USA launched it nationally. The Kent County YMCA now offers the program five nights a week and seven mornings.