Letter: Build a pool for next generation

Published 2:07 pm Friday, October 21, 2022

To the Editor:

My husband and I both had the privilege of growing up in small rural towns where the community gathered together and provided safe swimming venues for lessons and recreation. While growing up in John Day in the early ’50s, I had my first swim lessons at the J-Bar-L pool south of Canyon City. Neighbors carpooled to get all the neighborhood kids to lessons. Mothers and teenagers were the instructors and helpers. Some kids were transported by school bus.

When I was 8, Gleason Pool opened and that brought long summer afternoons swimming with friends under the careful supervision of the older kids in the neighborhood who were now lifeguards. Some of my best memories are watching my dad do a swan dive off the diving board and the neighbors’ dad swimming an amazing number of laps each evening.

In later years, my children learned to swim as toddlers and continued through high school on swim team. Not too much later, we became swim team grandparents as five of our grandchildren swam for the John Day Swim Team. Many of the grandchildren learned to swim at Gleason Pool. Our boys were lifeguards, swim instructors and one a swim team coach.

Four generations of my family benefited from the work of those in the mid-1950s who built a pool for generations to come. Now it is time for us to ensure generations to come will have a safe place to learn, exercise and swim for pleasure. We are more than willing to do our part so that families in the future will have the same benefits a pool provided for us. Vote yes on 12-85. For our kids, for the future.

Beth Spell

John Day