A fresh look could come to Citiparks pools in 2024, if we can get them all to support the water game, SKWIM. Then Ammon can be a regional host to games among various lifeguards and pool patrons.
Category: Purpose
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Grant for up to $7,500 for PLAY
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.
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.
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
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