Carmel Swim Academy opened its new facility July 5 at 830 City Center Dr.
The facility contains a six-lane pool — 5-feet deep and 25 yards long for each lane — and a small pool that is 3-feet deep for people to be safely introduced to water.
“Our goal in constructing this facility, which was a huge undertaking for us, was to create a safer, healthier and stronger community through swimming,” said Maggie Mestrich, director of business development for Carmel Swim Club and CSA.
CSA will offer swim lessons for ages 3 and older, lifeguard certification classes and community swimming hours.
Swimming lessons are divided into groups: 3- to 4-year-olds, 5- to 7-year-olds, 8- to 10-year-olds and 11 and older.
Community swim hours will be on Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays from 7 a.m. to 3 p.m. and from 8 to 9 p.m.; Tuesdays and Thursdays from 5 to 11 a.m. and from 1 to 3 p.m. and from 8 to 9 p.m.; Saturdays and Sundays from 5 a.m. to 9 a.m. and from 2 to 9 p.m.
Community swim memberships are offered through monthly memberships, 20-visit punch cards and day passes. Monthly memberships range from $45 to $50, 20-visit punch cards range from $85 to $100 and day passes range from $5 to $30.
Any child who is on free or reduced lunch or whose family is on an accounting utility assistance program is eligible to participate in CSA’s free swim lesson program.
“We all know that drowning is one of the leading causes of injury related death in young children,” Mestrich said. “However, participation in formal swimming lessons, while it doesn’t make you drown proof, can reduce that risk by 88 percent.”
Mestrich said children who are in households that have annual incomes of $50,000 or less have a higher risk of drowning. She said CSA wants to make sure that they are helping to prevent those tragedies through offering some free swim lesson programs.
“By opening up this pool, not only do we have space to grow our programs in general, but we are quadrupling the capacity of that free swim lesson program immediately, just by having all of this space available to us right now,” Mestrich said. “Building this facility required significant fundraising, growing programs like that continued fundraising needs exist, and we welcome any questions or donations to help support that.”
To date, Mestrich said CSA raised more than $700,000 to support the facility. The Carmel Swim Club made an additional investment of $635,000.
“We need to continue to raise additional funds to help this grow the actual programs within the shell of the building,” Mestrich said. “Cost of the building itself is a little bit more than that but that’s where our operations come into play.”
CSA aims to be the community’s “safe, welcoming and joyful facility” to learn to swim, according to Mestrich. She said people do not have to be an elite swimmer to be a part of the program.
“What we’re excited about is that background that we have from being at those highest levels of our sport, nobody knows swimming better than our staff,” Mestrich said. “We are incredibly equipped with professional and caring staff to take care of your family and make sure that you have a better, friendlier experience with the water here at Carmel Swim Academy.”
For more information, contact Senior Director Nicole Bills at [email protected].
