MVAC celebrates first anniversary
Berl Tiskus
Kids enjoy a water fight on the lawn during the Mission Valley Aquatic Center’s 1st Anniversary Celebration.
Berl Tiskus
Hu Beaver, left, offers his grandson a bite of huckleberry ice cream at the MVAC’s ice cream social celebrating its first year of operation.
Berl Tiskus
Agnes Rinehart paints a bowl as one of the fundraisers at the MVAC.
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POLSON — Soaking wet kids carried containers of water and manned the hose on the Mission Valley Aquatic Center’s lawn July 3, as adults visited in the shade of a myriad of colorful umbrellas.
The MVAC was celebrating its one-year anniversary with an ice-cream social fundraiser.
“This is a big anniversary,” said Hu Beaver, chair of the MVAC board. “To be going one year and to be in the position we are in — with the swim team, therapy pool and all the classes — it’s big.”
All ages from around the area use the facility’s pool and warm water therapy pool; take swim lessons or master swim classes; attend fitness classes in the pool such as aqua aerobics; Aqua Zumba and aqua yoga; or simply swim laps. Others come for the physical therapy/cardiac rehabilitation or visit the new community room for regular yoga and Zumba classes, gentle stretching, senior fitness and family fun.
The anniversary ice cream social is to celebrate that the MVAC is here, said Ali Bronsdon, aquatic director.
“We’ve had over 50,000 swimmers in the first year,” Bronsdon said.
The MVAC has been a long project, about five to 10 years, according to Tana Seeley, project director. Seeley said the economy crashed in the middle of the process.
Although folks in the Mission Valley have talked about a swimming pool for the last 50 years, the MVA group formed in 2003 and completed a feasibility study in 2004. After considering a Kerr Dam Field site for MVAC, the board received 2.5 donated acres in the Ridgewater Development and planned to build MVAC there. The 7-mil property tax levy to maintain and operate the MVAC passed in 2009.
Fundraising events included Water Daze — an annual one-mile swim across Polson Bay — a dunk tank; pledges; direct mailing requests; tables at the trade fair and the Flathead Cherry Festival; sandwich boards and a “Pry Open the Piggy” Bank campaign to involve the school children. Community members, anonymous and otherwise, donated generously and the MVAC broke ground on July 8, 2011. The aquatic center officially opened May 20, 2013.
The Flathead Lake Monsters, the Mission Valley’s competitive swim team, had their first swim meet on Jan. 25.
The beautiful and very busy building is the culmination of many years of work for a reason.
“We have a vision,” the MVAC’s website states. “We see every child in the Mission Valley having the chance to learn how to swim.”
