Donation allows more kids to learn to swim
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RONAN – The Boys and Girls Club of the Flathead Reservation and Lake County received a donation to help make sure that kids learn water safety skills.
“We will be able to increase the level of instruction that kids receive and improve their swim skills thanks to this donation,” said Boys and Girls Club Executive Director Aric Cooksley.
The Carl A. Ross Memorial Foundation donated two checks to the club totaling $6,481 to be designated for the use of teaching swimming and water safety to the members of the club.
Carl A. Ross once helped run the Flathead Lake Swim Program when he was alive. According to his memorial foundation, the program continued from 1935 to 2012 under the sponsorship of different groups including the local chapter of the American Red Cross, Coalition for Kids, and then, the Carl A. Ross Memorial Foundation.
“Oliver McAlear ran what was known as the Red Cross Swim Program for many years. Other directors were Carl Ross himself, Cindy Willis, Phyllis Stivers and Theresa Taylor. Many people of the community today recall learning to swim in the Flathead Lake from this program,” according to foundation documents.
“In 2012, we had to close the program due to difficulty in obtaining qualified Water Safety Instructors. In 2016, the foundation’s board of directors voted to make the closure permanent, dissolve the foundation, which is a 501c 3 organization, and transfer the cash assets to the Boys and Girls Club.”
The foundation members continued to note: “We hope that this will continue our goal that every child who lives near Flathead Lake should know how to swim.”
The donation means a couple things for the club. Cooksley said the funds will be used to provide water safety instructors at the club while kids are in the swimming pool.
“We have fully trained life guards in Polson and Ronan when the kids go to the lake or use the pool here, but this will allow us to increase our level of training for those staff as well as increase the level of instruction for the kids so they can improve their swim skills,” he said.
The funds will also be used to continue a partnership program between the Boys and Girls Club and the Mission Valley Aquatic Center in Polson to provide swimming lessons for kids.
“The majority of the money will go for instructions for kids,” he said. “We’ve had the partnership for several years, providing lessons to 150 kids.”
Cooksley said he is thankful for all the people that have donated to the swimming lessons program to make it possible.
“This will give us the ability to do even more,” he said.
