It’s been anything but a normal summer season at the Camp Verde Heritage Pool. The COVID-19 pandemic forced them to start a little later and to enact a number of safety precautions.
But with the summer season nearing its end, the people who run the pool are pleased with how things have gone.
“They’ve been going really great,” pool supervisor Jodi Jato said of the lessons. “We usually do — like last session — we had different stations. One guard will have kickboards and they’ll have fun kicking, then they’ll go down to the other end of the pool, like 2 to 3 kids, so we can keep them spaced out.”
One new safety measure sees the guards wearing face shields, which look similar to the front of a welding helmet, only clear. They wear these even when giving lessons, only taking them off when they need to do a demonstration with their heads under water.
That’s created some challenges for the guards. One of them, Megan Palmer, said that things can get really complicated when their breath fogs the shield up. But while occasionally inconvenient, it’s preferable to other options.
“It’s really not that bad,” Palmer said. “I’d rather swim with this than an actual mask.”
Having the pool available has been welcomed by members of the community, including Beckham Mott, 7, a second-grader at Camp Verde Elementary School. Beckham’s mother, Shana Norris, would bring him to the pool when he was younger but he never wanted to do anything more than play on the steps. But having his recreational options limited by the pandemic, Mott eventually decided that he wanted lessons.
Beckham quickly began having fun in the water, getting to see his friends and make new ones. He also wants to continue with swimming even after the summer ends.
“He was telling me that he wanted to swim when he was 18,” Norris said of her son. “He didn’t want to put his face in the water. I tried. He didn’t like it. Finally he — I think because of being stuck at home — was ready to get out. He took right to it. We did private lessons for the first week. Then we did the group.
“He loves it,” she added. “We’re going to join the Sedona Race Pace team.”
While the pandemic has forced everyone at the pool to operate a little differently, it’s had some unintended benefits. One is that with fewer kids in the pool and taking lessons, the instructors are able to focus their attention on a small group of students, even one-on-one.
“I think it’s easier for us to have one-on-one instruction,” lifeguard Angel Brady said. “When you’re swimming you want your attention on that kid fully. I think that having fewer kids, we’re able to use all of our guards and have more one-on-one teaching opportunities for them.”
For the remainder of the summer, the Heritage Pool will continue to offer lap swimming and water aerobics on Tuesdays and Thursdays from 7 to 9 a.m. Open recreational swimming will be on Saturday and Sunday from 12:30 to 2:30 p.m. and again from 3 to 5 p.m.
“We’re keeping it going as long as we can until Sept. 13,” Jato said. “Then we’ll probably have to call it for the season.”
Further information can be found at facebook.com/cvparksandrec.
