Year: 2018

Categories
Purpose

Grant for up to $7,500 for PLAY

Swimmers at Ammon Pool in Pittsburgh ready to play SKWIM with disk
Swimmers at Ammon pool ready for SKWIM game.

One section:

Aquatic Jamborees happen in 2-hour periods at community swim pools. Local events funnel to HQ pools with weekly festivals hosted at pools: Northside at The Pgh Project, Hill Districts Citiparks Ammon.

Engagement with SKWIM includes: introduction with casual game-play among drop-in individuals and invited community groups (church, scouts, nonprofit, professional, neighborhood, school, teams). Mix audiences, ages 10-and-older to adults, participate in a new, non-contact sport. Playing well with others happens in a setting that stresses teamwork, sportsmanship and integrity with pick-up/playground style squads. The ad-hoc teams form with a coordinator. These highly-social games occur in a lagoon area within the pool. SKWIM is sorta like water polo, but far easier to do and understand. First-time participants are proficient and make team contributions. SKWIM is played with a soft, foam, disk that easily skims along the water’s surface. Players pass and shot the disk into goals (like hockey, soccer, lacrosse and basketball) but teamwork matters, sorta like Ultimate Frisbee. Optional fins and life vests are provided.

SKWIM, a favorite among kids at camps, resonates with adults and guardians.

A pilot program in August 2018 operated with Citiparks blessing. See https://Ammon.4rs.org. With grant support, expansion to 15 city public pools can give kids and adults meaningful team and group activities for increased interactions and wellness.

Categories
Outreach Purpose

WESA Radio covers Ammon’s Head Lifeguard, Charles, our favorite super hero

Charles at side of pool where SKWIM happens
If you look close at the photo, notice the bottom left corner and the SKWIM fins. The guy in the hat in the pool holding a SKWIM disk is Coach Mark Rauterkus. Another SKWIM disk is visible on the bottom right of the frame. Charles is pointing past Coach and to the SKWIM Goal, not visible in the image.

Great article and interviews in the main-stream media about Pittsburgh’s Hill District super-star, Charles Bonner, Citiparks Ammon’s Head Lifeguard.

Be sure to read and listen to the coverage.

 

Charles at side of pool where SKWIM happens
That’s Charles doing command and control. If you look close at the photo, notice the bottom left corner and the SKWIM fins. The guy in the hat in the pool holding a SKWIM disk is Coach Mark Rauterkus. Another SKWIM disk is visible on the bottom right of the frame. Charles is pointing past Coach and to the SKWIM Goal, not visible in the image.

 

Categories
Process

SKWIM goals in shallow water

Kids at Citiparks Ammon got to play SKWIM in the shallow water. Here is some of that action.

Notes

Love how the basketballs are floating in the water and are idle.

A yellow fin and other pair of fins come off the kids and float too. The fins are a bit of a pain in the shallow water as the fins make it much harder to walk. For swimming, especially in deeper water, the fins are welcomed.

Leave a comment as to what you see in the box below.

Click photo for a larger view.

 

Categories
Event

Garfield Gators got into SKWIM at Ammon

Thanks for bringing the kids to the swim pool this summer. Some of the game to be posted soon.

Photos from the last day at Ammon with the Garfield Gators! Click image for larger view.

Competition

If your group, camp, sports team or school would like to play against the Garfield Gators, the Ozanam squad, or even the Ammon Team, leave a message below in the comments area. We’ll try to get a game with your squad in the hours and days and weeks to come.

The Garfield Gators are a football team with cheerleaders. They played their first games of the fall 2018 season in Ohio on Saturday, August 4, 2018.

Categories
Outreach

Call to participate, video shout out. Summer’s not over yet!

Sign up! Let us know you’re attending.

Categories
Event

All Events

Tip: Click the button, “Find Out More” to register.

Calendar

Click event for details and to register.

[qemcalendar month=”8″]

 

Event listing

Tip: Click the button, “Find Out More” to register.

[qem]

Bonus Calendar, the CLOH.org Google Calendar

Discover all future events by watching and subscribing to the main Google calendar, CLOH.org/calendar.

Categories
Outreach

Public Relations

Showing up is more than half the struggle.

Links

Assistance welcome

Share your insights on how to get the word out about these events as we want to engage more people at the pool in August.

Head Lifeguard, Charles, a Pittsburgh gem we can follow.

Animation of a dive
Charles teaching the dive in the deep end.

[lead-form form-id=1 title=Contact Us]

 

Categories
Outreach

Invite letter for group leaders

Feel free to copy, cut, and paste and edit this as an email to send to your potential team.

... Snip starts...

We want you to be a part of our squad at a fun, pop-up-styled, aquatic event that features some water-safety insights as well as a new team-based game called SKWIM.

Plus, this gives us a chance to support:

  • inter-generational play,
  • Citiparks pools,
  • local lifeguard aspirations,
  • personal fitness,
  • the life-saving sport of swimming,
  • city-living and Hill District Neighborhood vibrancy,
  • community engagement,
  • a mentoring mission,
  • the continuation of new, summer experiences in August,
  • and, of course,
  • clean, water-smart, concussion-free, RECREATION.

We’re trying to gather everyone together by 3:30 pm at the Citiparks Ammon Outdoor Swim Pool. Try to arrive on time as the session begins with a 30-minute clinic. Then our team will play two 30-minute games with up to 20 people per team. Subs are wonderful! Ends within 2-hours. Optional extra swimming after.

Ammon is an outdoor pool, so events occur weather permitting. If it storms, the pool will be closed.

Citiparks Ammon is at the corner of Bedford Ave and Memory Lane, Pittsburgh’s Hill District, 15219. Info & map.
 See: https://swim.cloh.org/2018/03/14/ammon/.

Use the next link to sign-up so that the hosts have permission to use photos, and just in case:

Then sign in for the squad and to see who else is opting in.

INSERT URL HERE for players to commit to the DATE:

 

On behalf of the organizers, Charlie (head lifeguard at the pool) and Coach Mark, THANKS for the consideration.

More insights on the event: Ammon.4rs.org .

 

... Snip end...
Categories
Purpose

Purpose for the Water Safety Events with SKWIM

Because we can celebrate summer-time city-life with a Community SKWIM Tournament

  • To share water-safety topics with citizens.
  • To build additional activities at Ammon Pool in August 2018.
  • To better utilize certain sections of the large swim pool are not busy in afternoons and evenings in August.
  • To blend in SKWIM and water polo with pool patrons in an organized setting.
  • To  pilot a SKWIM house league for possible expansion in future years at other Citiparks pools.
  • To promote fun, competitive events that can improve swimming skills and endurance so more kids can one day become lifeguards.
  • To stress sportsmanship, new friendships, inter-generational play among various groups.
  • To make up for a lack of student-swim opportunities in 2018’s Summer Dreamers Academy.
  • To provide athletes of various sports a cool-temperate fitness setting during August’s summer-time heat.
  • To generate additional gate receipts for sustaining Citiparks pool operations.
  • To provide swimmers, triathletes and lap-swimmers game-time experiences so they may one day turn into water polo players and eventually join the Pittsburgh Renegades Water Polo Team.
  • To give suburban visitors another reason to visit Pittsburgh’s Hill District besides for a Penguins game or concert at PPG Paints Arena.

Your input welcome

Insert additional reasons in the comments below.

Categories
Outreach

Movie Trailer