Mark Edelmann’s Y story begins in 1958 when he was 7 years old. Mark and his brother Alan took a city bus every Saturday morning, all by themselves, to go from their home in Edina to the Minneapolis Downtown YMCA on 9th Street. They had great fun doing arts and crafts, swimming and playing with everyone in the gym. When they got hungry, they went home.
In 2021, some 63 years after Mark first went to the Y, he created a named endowment fund for YMCA Camp Menogyn—a gift that will impact young people through the YMCA for many generations into the future. With an endowment gift, the donation is invested, and the investment earnings support the Y’s mission and programs year after year.
“I created this endowment fund so that more kids will be able to experience camp like I did,” Mark said. “Today that means throwing their phones into the lake—taking a break from technology and finding peace in the outdoors. It means slowing down and appreciating the beauty that the world brings to you.”
Mark’s Y camping experiences began at YMCA Camps Christmas Tree and Ihduhapi, where Mark has fond memories of taking care of the horses, shooting arrows and basket weaving. Then in 1966, Mark had the opportunity to go to YMCA Camp Menogyn, located on the edge of the Boundary Waters Canoe Area Wilderness just off the Gunflint Trail. The experience changed his life.
That summer, at age 15, Mark courageously joined a group of young campers whom he had never met and jumped on a seven-hour bus trip to Camp Menogyn. A week of paddling in the Boundary Waters led to subsequent 14-day, 21-day and 30-day summer wilderness adventures.
On his final trip, Mark and his fellow Menogyn campers departed from Grand Marais and traveled to Saskatchewan, Canada, and then to Hudson Bay Post 3, where their Old Town wood canoes awaited them. Traveling on the Churchill River, they experienced the life of the Voyageurs—camping, cooking, fishing, canoeing, enjoying the beauty of the forest, and learning to survive in the woods for a month.
“While you are living, learning and growing through life experiences, it is hard to know just how important those experiences will be,” Mark said. Now he realizes the deeper impact of what he learned: confidence, teamwork, resourcefulness, and leadership—skills that have served him well throughout his life.