April 7, 2008
Dear Palm Coast / Flagler County Resident:
I represent Friends of Swimming, an advocacy group chartered to fully support the City of Palm Coast and Flagler County in an effort to build a competition level aquatic facility in our community. This complex would provide residents of all ages, backgrounds, and needs with the resources necessary to reap all the benefits of lifelong swimming. Due to the tremendous growth experienced over the years, we have outgrown our current facilities. Beyond the fact that pool space is limited, we also do not have a facility adequate enough to host any sanctioned competitions. Swimming offers a wide range of benefits for people of all ages including those who are physically and mentally disabled, injured, and the recreational swimmer, all the way up to the elite level athlete. (See “Benefits of Swimming” on www.friendsofswimming.org for a more comprehensive list.)
Given the many health challenges of our generation, we as a community should encourage vigorous physical activity and promote a healthy lifestyle by offering our children and adults the best possible facilities to train, swim and enjoy. This is a huge yet obtainable goal that would benefit so many. Friends of Swimming would like to work hand-in-hand with the City, County and the School Board to make this dream become a reality.
During swim season, lap swimmers have a difficult time finding an available lane. Our recreational swimmers find their pool space slowly diminishing and the classes being offered cannot expand in order to accommodate the growing demand. During the long, hot days of summer, the pool does not open to the public until noon, as the facility is at capacity with day camp children and morning swimming lessons.
Our current facility is too shallow to safely use starting blocks, so our competitive swimmers are at a huge disadvantage when traveling to swim meets. Synchronized swimmers are also at a disadvantage due to depth constraints and lack of pool time. The swimmers are not allowed to touch the bottom of the pool during their performances and that is quite difficult when the pool, at its deepest point, is at 6 feet. These girls drive to DBCC in order to train in deep water. However, despite these obstacles, these athletes made Nationals for the past 4 out of 7 years.
We have not even begun to tap into the talents that our children and adults have to offer. We believe that we can attract more swimmers if the proper facilities were available; not to mention the appeal to future residents and visitors. Furthermore, if built and managed correctly, we would also be able to offer a more diversified range of classes/teams that could include: aquatic therapy, rehabilitation, water aerobics, diving, water polo and scuba diving.
We are on a quest to gain the support of the entire community. Our committee understands the importance of low impact physical activity and how swimming for life would positively impact each individual’s health. In one month’s time, we have had over 135 petitioners support this endeavor; we currently have over 450 supporters. With your help, Friends of Swimming would like to grow this number 100 fold, if not more, to show the City that we have the community’s support for such a project. Please take a few moments to log onto our website at www.friendsofswimming.org and sign our online petition.
Most important, our organization is seeking supporters who would be willing to volunteer some of their time to accomplish these goals. To help spearhead this initiative we are looking for individuals to help show the strong public support that is necessary for whatever funding opportunities may come our way. This will require attending public meetings, city council meetings and other political functions as well. Any amount of time would be well served and appreciated.
If you have any questions, please contact me at info@friendsofswimming.org. Thank you for your time.
Best regards,
Judi L. Rich
President
Friends of Swimming
Friends of Swimming • Swim for Life • www.friendsofswimming.org
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