Apopka Still Interested in Purchasing Camp Wewa
Local News Staff 
Apopka still wants to buy Camp Wewa, the 70-acre bucolic playground in northwest Orange County where thousands of youths spent their summers discovering new friends and learning about nature, but the YMCA of Central Florida is still considering options.
Mayor Bryan Nelson, a Wewa summer camper about 50 years ago who in February proposed the city buy the campground, answered a question about the status of the city’s offer by sending a short text, “No word from the Y,” punctuated with a sad-face emoji.
The Y offered little new information as well.
“All parties are working together to find the best possible outcome for our beloved camp Wewa,” said Dan Saginario, a YMCA vice president. “We remain optimistic that a positive, new chapter for this property will emerge and we look forward to sharing more in the future.”
When it confirmed it was selling Camp Wewa, Y leaders cited financial difficulties linked to the coronavirus pandemic, which led to the permanent closure of the Tangelo Park YMCA and shortened hours and reduced capacity at its other fitness facilities.
Other YMCAs took similar actions.
According to the New York Times, the YMCA of Greater New York closed three camps it had run since 1918 for generations of urban-dwelling children, “many of them Black and Latino and from families that could not otherwise afford to provide them a summer in the country.”
Those camps also were put up for sale to cut costs and raise money.
COVID forced the Y to cancel camps last summer. Financial uncertainty nixed the camps this year.
In Apopka, where development has boomed, especially on the west side of Orange County’s second-largest city, Nelson hopes to preserve the acres he loved as a youth as a community park — with amenities for the city to offer summer camps next year.
Apopka City Council approved Nelson’s request in March to bid $4.2 million for the camp.
City administrators cobbled together a financing package that included money from reserves, a surplus land sale, a recent utility-tax settlement with Duke Energy and a state grant, but the offer was still well shy of a $6 million offer from a land developer.
Nelson said the city by law can’t pay more than $4.2 million, the value set by a city-commissioned appraisal.
The camp, established in 1947, sits on Binion Road, surrounded by housing developments a few miles north of AdventHealth Apopka and a State Road 429 interchange. A “Friends of Camp Wewa” Facebook page has about 820 members.
A crowd-funding page for the city’s bid has raised about $15,000 so far.
But former campers contribute regularly to the Facebook page, recalling how summers there changed them.
“Life took dark turns in years that followed but it was the foundation laid at Camp Wewa that kept me grounded in many ways,” one 1990s alumnus wrote. “Grateful that we had a chance to be a part of something special. I really hope it sticks around for the next generation. They’re going to need it.”
Originally published by Orlando Sentinel
