TMI has long had a strong presence in the state of Alaska, with several clients going back almost a ¼ of a century! What drove them to us was the high cost of getting chlorine from the mainland USA to those remote regions on the North Slope, and on island chains in the Aleutians.
Over the years we have become very well acquainted with each other and our histories. These are mostly very small fishing communities, some with populations as small as >1000 people; not the kind of community that one would expect to go to the great expense of constructing an indoor pool, and the ongoing expense of maintaining it day to day.
The interesting fact here is that what drove these communities to build a large commercial pool was all the same motivation!
Every one of our clients was unequivocal about their reason; it was to teach people, and mainly children, to swim. These folks live in an area that is (almost) surrounded by water, and most of their livelihoods are based on working on the ocean! It would be foolish for them not to recognize that swimming and confidence in the water is one of the more important skills sets they require.
What got me thinking about this was an article I read earlier this month with the opening line, “Drowning is silent and fast.”
Such a lonely and sad opening to the article, which went on to state that drowning is the leading cause of death amongst children ages 5 to 14. What!!?
We literally have millions of pools in the US and thousands of Swim Schools; this is a disconnect that we as a nation, and as an industry need to focus on. I don’t have the answers, but I sure do have questions.