Southeast : Donors Rescue Swimming Facility

When a community pools its efforts, it can make a big splash.

It happened in Long Beach when the nonprofit California Pools for the Handicapped announced that the 33-year-old facility was going under and would be forced to close at the end of the month.

With only $400 in the bank, the organization needed a tsunami of donations to save the two heated swimming pools equipped with ramps and lifts that the disabled and elderly use for free.

Within days, $26,000 was donated, including checks ranging from $10 to $500 and one for $10,000 from McDonnell Douglas workers. An additional $5,100 has arrived in the mail since Friday, Supervisor Deane Dana gave $8,000 from his county discretionary funds, Russell Knott of the Knott’s Berry Farm family donated $5,000, and Long Beach senior citizen Doris Wescott, who uses the pools, donated $10,000.

“I certainly live in a community that cares and has proven that over and over again,” said Evelyn duPont, who founded the organization in 1963.

DuPont, a swimmer who competed and gave exhibitions until she was struck by polio in the 1950s, rehabilitated herself by swimming in her backyard pool. When she met other disabled people, she invited them to come for swimming, eventually starting a rehabilitative aquatics program. In the 1960s, she approached civic leaders about opening a facility for the community. Last year the pools were used more than 23,000 times.

The contributions will allow the enclosed pools to stay open through the summer, said Executive Director W. Joe King Jr.

When the organization’s financial situation recently turned dire, professional fund-raisers cautioned King not to go public, warning that people don’t want to donate to a sinking organization. King and DuPont didn’t listen.

“We put our faith in the community, as we’ve done for 33 years, and the community came through,” King said. “The professionals aren’t always right.”