Northwoods Adventure: Brainerd Family YMCA Announces Capital Campaign

On top of celebrating 135 years in the Brainerd Lakes Area, CEO Shane Riffle announced future projects during their “Back to the Future” event on Saturday, October 2 at Camp Vanasek.

“One of the biggest things that we are looking at is renovating, redoing our facility,” said Riffle. “It’s dated, it was originally built in 1967, the program space just does not meet our needs with what we need to do.”

Riffle says the campaign is broken down into four parts: redoing the facility, a childcare center located just across the street from the YMCA at 703 Oak Street, acquiring Camp Vanasek, and building an indoor sports complex.

While Saturday’s event was a chance to look back at the past, it was also a chance to lay out the future of the YMCA in Brainerd.

“We need to keep our members and we need to keep meeting those day-to-day needs and we hope that we’re able to do that,” Riffle said.