Heritage Club

Committed to Our Community

The Heritage Club recognizes donors who have made a planned gift to the YMCA Foundation of Middle Tennessee. The Foundation is honored to have more than 500 individuals who have left a lasting legacy by including the YMCA in their estate plans.

For members of the Heritage Club, a charitable bequest or other estate gift to the Foundation passes on their family's values and ensures the Y serves other families for years to come. Their lasting impact has helped make the YMCA of Middle Tennessee what it is today.

Heritage Club Members  Join the Heritage Club  Named Funds & Camperships

Long before Camp Widjiwagan, the Nashville YMCA conducted its summer camp for boys in a number of locations, leasing available land near Ashland City, Rock Island, Crossville and elsewhere in the early 1900s.

In 1912 and 1913, the Y leased property from Mr. and Mrs. A.P. Jackson along Sycamore Creek, about a mile north of Ashland City. Operations, including summer camp, were disrupted and inconsistent at best during World War I, but by the early 1920s, the Y had resumed camping activities, eventually returning to the “Camp Sycamore” location owned by the Jacksons.

In 1923, thanks to a gift from H.G. Hill Sr., the Y purchased the property for $2,000, and owned for the first time in its history, a permanent summer camp.

In 1958, Girl Scouts acquired the property and continue to operate it as Camp Sycamore Hills today.

In 2025, utilizing a photograph the swimming hole at Camp Sycamore from the Y’s archives, artist Kim Barrick reimagined the landscape of one of the Y camp’s most popular features.

H.G. Hill Jr. Philanthropic Award

Each year, we invite all Heritage Club members to a special dinner to recognize a deserving donor with the H.G. Hill Jr. Philanthropic Award, the club's highest honor.

Generously sponsored by the H.G. Hill Realty Company, the award perpetuates the memory of H.G. Hill Jr. who served as Chairman of the YMCA Board of Directors from 1950 to 1953 and again from 1965 to 1967. H.G. Hill was an instrumental leader to the YMCA of Middle Tennessee for more than 50 years.

2025 H.G. Hill Jr. Philanthropic Award Recipient

In 2025, in lieu of presenting its typical award, the Foundation surprised the Hill family with a special recognition in honor of the YMCA of Middle Tennessee’s 150th Anniversary. As seminal supporters of the Y’s mission for generations, the family has been instrumental in helping the Y become the organization it is today.