This letter is coming from the voices of the past of Si View pool, whose work affected those in the past, present and the future.

We are the volunteers, lifeguards, water-safety instructors and managers. We taught swimming and water safety to hundreds – no thousands – of children, including babies, preschoolers, grade-schoolers, teens, grade-school and high-school classes, classes for the physically and mentally disabled of all ages and children from the Children’s School (my grandson Daniel was one of those 24 years ago for several years). We have helped stroke patients, accident victims, people with hip and knee replacements, those needing water-exercise classes, swim teams, those learning lifesaving, lifeguard training, water safety and first aid (many times with the fire departments involved) and scuba classes. We have hosted Halloween parties with spook houses and monsters, Christmas parties and so much more.

It was our job but it was something we were all so dedicated to that nothing could stop us. We loved doing it. I can’t remember one trained staff member who didn’t feel the real need, necessity and drive to teach everyone we could to be as safe in and around the water as possible. Many near-drowning stories came back to each one of us through the years from students of near tragedies in and around the water where their training brought them safely through. They didn’t become a statistic.

Where did all of this happen? At our own Si View pool. We taught our own children to become volunteers, lifeguards and instructors, and they taught theirs. Each staff member got family members and friends to participate, increasing the water safety of our Valley families. That is how the past affected the present and the future. There is never a lack for learners. They are born every day.

My sister, Georgia Kramer, and I worked for King County Aquatics and The American Red Cross at Si View pool from 1960 to 1991. Many times we worked under the threat of Si View being closed but the people fought back and kept it open.

The power of the Snoqualmie Valley people is unequaled. If you truly want to keep Si View open, fight for it. Where will you go to get water-safety classes for your children? The rivers and lakes? How many have we lost through the years at the rivers and lakes? Not nearly as many as we might have while the pool was opened and working hard to prevent it. Several staff members of the pool who swam in our local swimming holes pulled several to safety in years past. Where will we get our local lifeguards and instructors if the pool remains closed and wasted?

We challenge every student, lifeguard, water-safety instructor, parent, grandparent and great-grandparent to write your own story letter of Si View pool. Where are you now that the pool really needs you? Make your voice and opinion heard. It’s a crime to close that pool. Our families need it. It’s all we have. We need your votes to save our history of the pool and for the very necessity of keeping the pool open for all to use. Don’t fail the pool. It has given us so much. It didn’t fail you. Vote or register to vote to save the pool in February.

Sharon Posey, Georgia Kramer, Harriet Nyberg, Spike Burke, Roger Posey, Jim Simon, Pat Smith and Greg Sims (director of communications, American Medical Response for the state of Washington).

Snoqualmie Valley

For all the letters, pick up a copy of this week’s Valley Record