For nearly 90 years, Camp Koko­kahi has weathered the salty breezes of Kaneohe Bay with a spiritual, if not physical, grace. While thousands of Hawaii families and visitors enjoyed the waterfront facilities, the buildings deteriorated, held together by an occasional new coat of paint, and the camp seemed to slip from people’s minds.

"I remember the camp was really, really busy back in the old days, and over the years it tapered off a little bit but then it came back again," said Diane Jardin, a sales and marketing representative with the YWCA who’s been with the organization for more than 30 years, 16 of them at Koko­kahi. "It’s a never-ending thing, I think."

The 11-acre camp recently completed a $300,000 renovation, getting a much-needed face-lift. The YWCA recently celebrated the renovation with a fair aimed at reacquainting the public with its programs.

"People learn how to swim here when they’re little, in our aquatics program, but then they never come back," said Noriko Namiki, interim chief executive officer of YWCA of O‘ahu. "But we’ve made so many improvements this past year, and so we wanted to bring the community back."

So far, the project has involved renovating the recreation center and waterfront banquet hall, repainting the quaint cottages and resurfacing the swimming pool. The heated pool had always been popular for its keiki courses and adult fitness classes but had begun to deteriorate.

"People were stepping on pieces of tile in the pool," said Jade Stice Finley, who’s been bringing her son Jet, now 6, to swim since he was just a few months old.

Finley grew up in Kaneohe and remembers going to Camp Koko­kahi for gymnastics camp. That later proved to be a solid foundation for a 15-year career on Broadway, where she performed in productions such as "Miss Saigon" and "Jekyll and Hyde." She returned to Kaneohe to raise a family, and while the gymnastics program has been relocated, she attends a "hot fitness" class recently started at the camp — one of many new programs the Y is bringing to Koko­kahi.

"Kokokahi has really been sort of a mainstay in the community for a very long time, and I think it’s even better now because I feel like there’s a lot more outreach now," she said.

Located at the southernmost tip of Kaneohe Bay, Camp Koko­kahi was created in 1927 by Theodore Richards, known for establishing the now-famous singing program at Kame­ha­meha Schools where he served as principal for five years. He envisioned a camp where people of all races could gather as "one blood," or "koko­kahi."

"He wanted to gather everybody of all races, regardless of religion, so they could gather and play together," Namiki said. "We still like to live that spirit."

It was an idea diametrically opposed to the prevailing practice. Just up the hill from Koko­kahi, in fact, was Camp Hale Kipa, where the Y ran separate camps for Chinese, Japa­nese and other groups. But there was one spot, called the Friendship Gardens, that was different.

"They created that garden so that all of the people in these camps could work and play together," Jardin said.

Kokokahi was established in that spirit, running a variety of educational and outdoor programs for people of all ethnicities and beliefs.

Namiki plans to resurrect many of those programs in the next year. But she probably won’t be bringing back the animals — a calf and some chickens — that were at the camp as part of a farm education program.

"One day I remember the calf got loose, and I had to go after him," Jardin said. "I finally got him back to where he belonged, but I know when I got back to the office, I broke into a cold sweat. I guess it was an aftershock. It was kind of big but a friendly calf."

In addition to YWCA activities, Koko­hahi was used as a rest camp for injured military personnel. YWCA officials have a letter from Ginger Crick Reeves, whose father, Richard Crick, stayed at Koko­kahi after being wounded on Iwo Jima.

"It was a green peaceful oasis and a much needed place to help heal the hearts and minds of men who had been through the horrors of battle," Reeves wrote.

Even with the renovation, Koko­kahi still has a nostalgic "Y" feel with rustic cottages — some barely larger than a lifeguard shack, others large enough to sleep a medium-size family, all simply furnished with bunk beds. With no furnishings beyond the beds, they seem to send a message to get out and enjoy nature.

Many of the cottages, which were relocated from Hale Kipa in 1933, are named for prominent kama­aina families — Ala­ka­na­dero for Alexander and Wili­koki for Wilcox — who contributed to the camp during the Depression. Newly repainted, the cottages give the camp a clean, uniform appeal.

"Just the mere painting of the outside of the buildings — it has been done from time to time, but not in this very special way — so now the camp is all the same, in plantation green," Jardin said.

Other facilities, like the recreation center and banquet hall, needed a more radical renovation, getting new hardwood floors and new windows. The rec center in particular was so run-down and termite-stricken that it had been closed to the public for many years.

"I know what the rec center looked like before, and it was — oh my gosh," Jardin said. "But this facility is so beautiful now, it’s just awesome."

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Camp Kokokahi is at 45-35 Kaneohe Bay Drive. Call 247-2124 or visit ywca­oahu.org for information.