Who we are

The Foundation


The Don Willy Foundation, which owns the buildings, is named after its founder Don Willy Albisetti (1923-2000).

Don Willy


Fr. Willy Albisetti, a priest in Chiasso since 1953, has lived his parish with the goal of weaving, alongside spiritual ones, positive human relationships both with the population and, above all, with his boys and young people with whom and for whom he has worked throughout his priestly life.

His vigorous magisterium


His vigorous magisterium can be summarized as follows:

  • accept everyone for who they are before claiming to change them;
  • form the young man, the man with all his virtues, before claiming to make him a Christian;
  • create group life, with solid friendship relationships, to exorcise loneliness and exclusion;
  • To be open to all the wonders of nature and the world, because beauty is the surest road that must be traveled.

The Campground


The idea of creating a "Summer Camp at Catto in Leventina" for the youth of Chiasso was definitely his masterpiece. The experience began in Lurengo in 1955 and grew steadily until it became "Don Willy Foundation" in 1967. Through this structure, he has managed, step by step, to create, alongside increasingly high-performing facilities, a spirit of responsibility, solidarity and friendship that has been maintained over time among those who have participated and are participating in these moments of carefree coexistence.

His project


This project, in the words of Fr. Willy, should " foster an encounter with nature, dialogue with others, a Christian deepening or at least a search for truth, and be an educational moment in which young people of different ages come together to continue their growth in other ways, in the serene and open friendship between themselves and the educators."