Save the Pool fundraising events continue

Published 4:11 pm Tuesday, August 30, 2016

Another fundraiser for the Save the Pool campaign is set for Saturday at the Hildred T. Moore Aquatic and Fitness Center.

A yard sale runs from 8 a.m. to 2 p.m. at the pool at the McConnell Sports Complex off Airport Road and near Washington-Warren Airport.

Other fundraising events for the campaign will be conducted throughout the remainder of this year, according to Kristi Roberson, the city’s parks and recreation director. “We have finished our fundraisers for August. We have two fundraisers planned every month until the end of December — at least two,” she told the City Council during its Aug. 22 meeting.

On Sept. 20, another fundraiser will be held at Zaxby’s, in which the campaign will receive a percentage of the receipts contributors drop into a box, Roberson said Tuesday. Another fundraising golf tournament is set for Oct. 11, followed by another fundraiser at Pizza Inn on Nov. 7 and a comedy night fundraiser at the Turnage Theatre on Nov. 19. Details of those fundraisers will be announced later.

As of Aug. 21, the Save the Pool campaign has raised a little more than $21,000, according to a memorandum from Roberson to the mayor and City Council.

That amount was generated by five fundraising events: Summer Kickoff, Save the Pool golf tournament, Save the Pool fundraiser at Pizza Inn, World’s Largest Swim Lesson and the Beaufort/Hyde Special Olympics athletes hosted a car wash. The campaign continues to sell T-shirts and tiles.

On Aug. 21, the Hildred T. Moore Aquatic and Fitness Center hosted a back-to-school swim and ice cream party. Money raised by that event will be added to the $21,223.85 generated by the first five events.

In May, the City Council endorsed a plan to better market the city-owned pool to increase membership and revenue for the city.

Council members also urged the city’s pool committee to develop even more suggestions to increase membership and revenue as part of the save-the-pool campaign. Under that campaign, the committee is tasked with raising $150,000 to help pay for replacing the pool’s dehumidifier, with the city providing a matching amount. Replacing the unit will cost about $300,000, not including the cost of installing the new unit in a different location that makes it easier to maintain and repair.

In May, the marketing recommendations include the following:

• hold a membership drive each January and June, waiving the $25 application fee;

• waive the $25 application fee for any corporation (organization) that donates at least $1,000 to the save-the-pool campaign and obtains a corporate membership for use of the center;

• provide six pool-party rentals at no cost for raffles, silent auctions or similar events each fiscal year;

• sell decorative tiles to raise money for the save-the-pool campaign at $100 per tile or $150 for two tiles.

 

About Mike Voss

Mike Voss is the contributing editor at the Washington Daily News. He has a daughter and four grandchildren. Except for nearly six years he worked at the Free Lance-Star in Fredericksburg, Va., in the early to mid-1990s, he has been at the Daily News since April 1986.
Journalism awards:
• Pulitzer Prize for Meritorious Public Service, 1990.
• Society of Professional Journalists: Sigma Delta Chi Award, Bronze Medallion.
• Associated Press Managing Editors’ Public Service Award.
• Investigative Reporters & Editors’ Award.
• North Carolina Press Association, First Place, Public Service Award, 1989.
• North Carolina Press Association, Second Place, Investigative Reporting, 1990.
All those were for the articles he and Betty Gray wrote about the city’s contaminated water system in 1989-1990.
• North Carolina Press Association, First Place, Investigative Reporting, 1991.
• North Carolina Press Association, Third Place, General News Reporting, 2005.
• North Carolina Press Association, Second Place, Lighter Columns, 2006.
Recently learned he will receive another award.
• North Carolina Press Association, First Place, Lighter Columns, 2010.
4. Lectured at or served on seminar panels at journalism schools at UNC-Chapel Hill, University of Maryland, Columbia University, Mary Washington University and Francis Marion University.

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