Portage pool party
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PORTAGE – For local residents, summer is synonymous with one thing – the sound of children laughing and playing at the Crichton McCormick Park Pool.
On Wednesday, with temperatures in the 80s, more than 100 patrons – children and adults alike – could be found splashing, swimming and enjoying the sun at the community hotspot.
But 13 years ago, it was a different story, as the pool was in dire financial straits due to declining attendance.
Then, as other local pools closed – in Ligonier and Liberty Park – Portage decided to step up and save its treasured landmark.
According to Sharon Squillario, secretary of the Portage Area Joint Recreation Commission, the commission partnered with the Portage Area School District to launch a fundraising campaign to save the pool.
That first year, students took part in a walk-a-thon and raised more than $5,000.
The initial fundraising effort allowed the commission to install a new water slide, repair the baby pool and completely repaint the interior of the main pool, Squillario said.
The fruitful collaboration with the school district has continued to the present day, as the district holds an annual fundraiser to purchase pool passes for students, she said. This year, more than $10,000 was raised for the program.
The combination of community-funded upkeep projects and the school pool pass program has fueled a substantial increase in pool attendance over the past decade, Squillario said.
Now, the pool is packed with local families throughout the summer.
“You can see, you can hear the children laughing, they spend their summers here,” she said. “The community supports the park and the pool 100 percent.”
Portage Area Elementary School Principal Jennifer Pisarski said that in the past 13 years, the school district has been “creative” in distributing pool passes to its students.
Some years, the passes serve as rewards for perfect attendance or outstanding grades, other years they’re awarded by daily lottery drawing, Pisarski said.
“Two years ago, we did a star student (pool pass award), each teacher picked one of the kindest, hardest-working students to get one,” she said.
In addition to internal fundraising efforts at the elementary, Pisarski said that more and more local businesses have been donating toward the pool pass distribution effort over the past few years.
That has allowed the school to hand out more season and day passes to the pool than ever before.
“The pool and the park are a treasure in our community,” Pisarski said. “The tennis courts, baseball fields, pickleball courts – there is something for people of all ages.”
Donations to support the pool can be mailed to either the Portage Area School District office or the Portage Area Joint Recreation Commission, Pisarski said.
Generations of fun
Portage resident Bernadette Chapell remembers summers spent at the pool in the 1970s, when the pool was at its previous location, where baseball fields are now located.
Today, she goes to the pool with her granddaughter, Ava Hill.
“(The new pool) it’s a lot better ... for the kids now that they’ve got the slides,” Chapell said.
It’s “worth every penny,” Chapell added, noting that not many towns in central Pennsylvania have community pools like Crichton McCormick.
Shirl Petrunak shared a similar experience to Chapell, watching her own grandkids splash around from her post on the pool deck.
Petrunak has been going to the pool since it opened at its new location in 1993.
“I love this pool, my own kids came here, they grew up here and now my grandkids are coming to the pool,” Petrunak said.
Mirror Staff Writer Conner Goetz is at 814-946-7535.