A ‘big pool’ one 25 yards long and 20 yards wide is key to expanding the Y’s swim program, but would cost $3 million.
By: Marisa Maldonado
Twin brothers David and Jacob Forbes couldn’t wait to get into the pool to start their lesson last week at the South Brunswick Family YMCA, prompting calls from their parents and the lifeguard to slow down. Soon the kindergartners calmed down and followed their instructors’ directions to float, kick and paddle.
Taking these swimming classes has helped the boys, who both have developmental disabilities and attend adaptive classes in the South Brunswick School District, learn how to listen, said their mother, Melissa Forbes.
"(Initially) we would get in the water, and it didn’t matter how deep it was, they would try to swim away," Ms. Forbes.
The swim program at the Y was one of the organization’s first offerings when it started in 1996. It has expanded to include children’s swim lessons all named after fish for beginners to competitive swimming for older swimmers. Aqua fitness for adults, a class for dealing with arthritis, and swim programs for developmentally disabled children also are signature offerings.
Several schools also bring their students to the pool, including Brunswick Acres School and the Academy Learning Center in Monroe, both of which use the pool for students with disabilities.
Aquatics Director Tobree Mostel-Estrada said she has revamped the swim curriculum since taking over the program last fall. Emphasis is placed on developing basic skills first, such as floating, then moving onto more advanced techniques.
"You’re not pushing, you’re just helping them reach their potential," said Ms. Mostel-Estrada, who taught swim classes for four years before becoming aquatics director.
Swim instructors must spend 19 hours in the pool with experienced teachers before leading their own classes, Ms. Mostel-Estrada said. All teachers also must become certified in water safety instruction.
"The staff knows what’s expected," Ms. Mostel-Estrada said. "As long as they do what’s expected, we have a very laid-back atmosphere."
Enrollment in swim classes has increased as the community has grown, she said. Last winter 379 students registered for swim classes at the Y, an increase of about 100 students from winter 2005. The Y also has not canceled a class in the last two sessions, she said.
Ms. Mostel-Estrada declined to release figures for this spring’s session, saying the numbers have yet to be finalized.
Some of these customers are returning from past sessions. Abbey Aymes, who has been taking her older son to the Y for three years, said the swim lessons have helped her two sons, 3-year-old Henry and 5-year-old George, adapt to the water quickly. Her older son, who has started to master the front crawl in his three years of taking lessons, already is looking toward his future in the pool.
"He’s excited that there’s going to be a big pool, because he wants to go diving," Ms. Aymes said.
A "big pool" one 25 yards long and 20 yards wide is key to expanding the Y’s swim program, said Ms. Mostel-Estrada and Executive Director Tom Libassi. The Y hopes to build a pool that has a maximum depth of between 12 and 15 feet, sufficient for high school swim meets and lifeguard classes. The existing pool is 40 feet long.
But the Y needs about $3 million for the new pool, which also would include a sauna, Jacuzzi and locker rooms. Fundraising likely will be one way of collecting the necessary funds, Mr. Libassi said, as will be applying for Open Space funding through Middlesex County.
An exploratory committee of members of the Township Council, Board of Education and the Y’s board of directors is expected to meet and discuss this option, Mr. Libassi said.
"There is precedence to having that done," Mr. Libassi said. "We think when the county sees the amount of support it has for the project that we’ll be able to convince them it’s worth their investment."
But the plan still is far from being a reality, Ms. Mostel-Estrada said.
"Until I actually see it, and until I actually say, ‘We’re doing it,’ it’s all hypothetical," Ms. Mostel-Estrada said. "We’re just testing the waters, so to speak."
The Y still would use the current pool for services such as adaptive lessons, Ms. Mostel-Estrada said, as the new pool would be too large for those children.
Children such as David, who recently was diagnosed with autistic spectrum disorder, and Jacob, who has learning and language disabilities, particularly benefit from the Y’s programming, their parents said. Finding programs that cater tochildren with disabilities is difficult, Ms. Forbes said.
Jacob, the more outgoing of the boys, paddled around the pool last week with no safety vest. David, who is more reserved, still needed a vest but appeared to thrive in the water.
"If he was in a class with one instructor and (multiple) kids, he would have drowned," said Mike Forbes, David’s father.