Until recently, I worked as a lifeguard and water aerobics instructor at the Olympic Peninsula YMCA. I started there in August 2022 and want provide a quick backstory, since it’s relevant today.

In 1976, the Santa Clara Swim Club in Silicon Valley, California, had just been made famous by gold medalist Mark Spitz. I was 11, and my sister was 9 years old. My mother was recently divorced and going into the workforce for the first time. What to do with the kids? We lived 17 miles away, so my little sister and I took the public bus after elementary school, using three bus transfers to get to Santa Clara Swim Club. There was a library right next door to the pool, so we could rest, do our homework, converse with friends, eat a snack, then do a 1-2 hour swim practice, after which our mom could pick us up at 6 p.m.

It was a positive solution to child care while my sister and I learned the value of individual hard work and perseverance.

As a senior in high school, I had my choice to accept a full-ride swimming scholarship to Brown, Columbia, Cornell and the University of Oregon. Free college!

As you can see in our community, we have many children that need something to do. With our kids using screens and social media as childcare, we need to give them an opportunity for health and fitness, and the leadership skills that are built through swimming programs.

Here are some solutions to expedite the construction of a new pool facility.

• Stop stalling. You’ve all read the most recent survey and you can see that we need a pool immediately. If you haven’t toured the current condition of the 60-plus-year-old Mountain View pool, I invite you to do that immediately.

•This must be a collaborative effort.

• Jefferson Transit can provide free bus rides that drop off right in front of the new pool facility.

•Chimacum and Port Townsend school districts can commit to busing students after school to the new pool facility.

•The Jefferson County Library can welcome students to do homework and rest.

•The Jefferson County Food Bank can provide free snacks so the children are nourished and ready for a 1-3 hour swim practice.

Regarding funding:

•I propose a Tri-County YMCA, consisting of Pierce, Kitsap and Jefferson counties.

Currently, Pierce and Kitsap YMCAs have a coalition. They are building brand new pools in Tacoma and Poulsbo.

•The money is there. The facilities in Pierce and Kitsap counties are top of the line, well staffed, clean and and offer many classes. When our members leave Jefferson County for YMCA classes, this is where they go.

•We can tap into them and be an extension satellite of Pierce and Kitsap counties with Jefferson County.

•Talk to the multi-millionaires. I go to the YMCA in every city I visit, and I find they are sponsored by big name philanthropy: Paul G. Allen, Weyerhaeuser Group and so forth. Talk to the local owners of U-Haul and Curtis Trailer. Talk to Mackenzie Scott, Jeff Bezos’ ex-wife: she gives grants of $250,000 that I’m sure the YMCA qualifies for in some way.

•The new special transportation funding district just made approximately $745,000 in one year with a 0.2% tax. We can have a 0.1% to 0.2% special pool funding sales tax, funded equally by tourists and residents of Jefferson County.

•Talk to Keith Williams, executive director of Olympic Peninsula YMCA. He’s built pools all over America. He’s here, right now, in Jefferson County.

•Have a fundraising people’s pledge thermometer at the front desk of the Olympic Peninsula YMCA. “I, Zory Hill, pledge to donate $1,000 toward the completion of the new Tri County YMCA.”

•It’s time we paid it forward to the next generations for 60 years.

Finally, have the courage to build it! There will always be a reason not to build it. Be the change you want to see in this county.

Zory Hill worked until recently as a lifeguard and water aerobics instructor at the Olympic Peninsula YMCA.