Icon viewers:
2018 Red Cross Learn To Swim Program is completed for this summer. 75 students participated in the nine days of lessons! We had great weather again this year, although a cooler second week. I would like to thank the Village of Ada for the facility to hold the lessons. The pool staff had the facility open and ready for the volunteers and swimmers each morning. The water was wonderful, the pool area was always clean and ready for our use and the lifeguards were very attentive to the swimmers.
A huge thank you goes to the Ada Kiwanis Club for being our sponsoring agency. The Red Cross charges a fee of $240 (for a maximum of 75 students) for an instructor to conduct the lessons. The Kiwanis Club was again, very willing to support this entire project even beyond the fee by furnishing needed supplies including the booklets received by each student. Some Kiwanians even volunteered to help in and out of the water!
I would also like to thank the Ada Herald, the Kenton Times and the Ada Icon for getting lesson information and registration forms out to the public.
The classes, including Levels 1-4 of the Red Cross Learn To Swim Program, for 75 students were accomplished with the help of 39 volunteers, giving in excess of 630 hours of their time for children in the Ada area, to become safer in and around water. Some helpers were in the water, while others worked on deck and some did both! If you see one of these volunteers please thank them for the time they devoted to the swim program this year. My apologies if I missed someone…
Volunteer helpers included: 8 Kiwanis members: Heather Cox, Joe Ferguson, Carol Friesner, Jack Jeffrey, Bryan Marshall, Bruce Neely, Saundra Neely, Charles VanDyne; seven lifeguards; as well as Grace Allison, Jeff Allison, Jillian Allison, Rob Allison, Myra Berger, Jill Brown, Eli Butterfield, Barb Cline, Raegan Cox, Boston Culbertson, Deb Engelhardt, Adam Ferguson, Lisa Ferguson, Riley Ferguson, Beth Gray, Jillian Hazelton, Jennifer Herrera, Ann Hood, Colleen Marshall, Meredith Marshall, Allison Moore, Katherine Moore, Chris Neely, Rebecca Neely, Seth Neely, Joan Owen, Kathy Reese, Melissa Sutton, Lane Wildermuth, Troy Wildermuth, and Marilyn Williams.
If your child did not receive his/her skill booklet, it is completed and available at the Ada Municipal Pool, while open. Following the pool closure for this season, they will be available for a short period at the Ada Water Department, during regular hours.
My sincere thank you to everyone for the July recognition of my 50 years as a Red Cross Volunteer, most specifically as a Water Safety Instructor. Although without the aid of so many other volunteers over the years, the Learn To Swim program would not have been as successful! Many thanks to the Village of Ada for the use of the pool and to Ada Kiwanis club, in the past few years, for providing funds. Thank you as well to the Ada Herald, Kenton Times and the Ada Icon for sharing the lesson information and registration forms. I also appreciate all the parents that for so many years entrusted your children to our classes and the adults who ventured out of their comfort zone to learn to swim.
Thank you to Mayor Retterer, our Ohio Governor's office, Todd James of the North Central Ohio Red Cross Chapter, which includes Hardin County, many friends, family, and former volunteers with this swim program, the organizations and individuals contributing to my "bronzed image" in the Ada Pool House; and especially to the person who spearheaded this recognition, Bryan Marshall. Please know how appreciative I am of all your kind gestures via cards, notes, flowers and many personal conversations!
Saundra Neely, Red Cross Water Safety Instructor, Volunteer
