Paradise Lake

Paradise Lake is a small lake community in the farm country of Wellesley Township, about 3 km south of St. Clements. Its homes sit around the shore on Maplewood Road, Willow Way Road and four private lanes: Silverbirch, Pinewood, Beechwood and Cedarwood. Tall trees stand between the houses and the water, and farm fields begin where the lanes end. YMCA Camp Ki-Wa-Y sits on the west shore. The lake and the land around it are private, with no public beach.

A children's summer camp has run on the lake since 1924, on land the Kiwanis Club of Kitchener-Waterloo leased that year and bought in 1938. The camp was named Camp Ki-Wa-Y in 1942, and in 2009 the Kiwanis Club gave the property to the Kitchener-Waterloo YMCA. Cottages were built around the rest of the shore, and today the Township's Official Plan names Paradise Lake as one of its four residential settlement areas.

Paradise Lake has about 70 homes, a mix of detached houses and cottages. Most lots measure between about 900 and 2,300 square metres, or roughly a quarter to half an acre. The 2021 census does not count Paradise Lake on its own. It is part of the Wellesley countryside, which had about 1,330 homes outside the villages. About four in five of those homes are single detached houses, and about two in five were built in 1960 or earlier.

Paradise Lake is about 15 km by road from Uptown Waterloo, a drive of about 20 minutes, by Hessen Strasse, Benjamin Road and Westmount Road. St. Clements is about 2.5 km north by Maplewood Road and Herrgott Road, and Wellesley Village is about 13 km west. Highway 401 is reached through Kitchener. Grand River Transit does not yet serve the township.

The lake sits at the centre of the community, with quiet water and wooded shores beside the homes. YMCA Camp Ki-Wa-Y, on the west shore, has welcomed campers for more than a century and runs outdoor education programs through the school year. St. Clements, a few minutes north, has the nearest grocery store, pharmacy, post office, library branch and arena, along with the Lions Park and its ball diamonds.

• St. Jacobs Public School — JK to Grade 8. The public elementary and middle school for Maplewood Road, Beechwood Lane and Silverbirch Lane, in St. Jacobs.
• Linwood Public School — JK to Grade 8. The public elementary and middle school for Pinewood Lane, Cedarwood Lane and Willow Way Road, in Linwood.
• Elmira District Secondary School — Grades 9 to 12. The public secondary school for all of Paradise Lake, in Elmira.
• St. Clement Catholic Elementary School — JK to Grade 8. The Catholic elementary and middle school for Paradise Lake, in St. Clements, about 3 km away.
• St. David Catholic Secondary School — Grades 9 to 12. The Catholic secondary school for Paradise Lake, in Waterloo.