A young woman, who wishes to remain anonymous, working at the Lopez Islander dock tells this personal story about the day she jumped into the ice-cold water after a 58-year-old visitor fell in trying to hold onto her boat at the slip. It was a sunny day and the slips were all full of boats, and the current was running fast.

“I threw her a life ring, but she slipped under the frigid water immediately. Her husband called out, ‘She can’t swim.’ The woman was being carried out swiftly with the current, so I jumped into the slip for her. In her panic the drowning woman grabbed my hair. I got loose and dove under, pushed up and held her bottom up so she could get air, while at the same time getting traction with my feet against the moving boat,  That was 19 years ago, and I always have been grateful that I learned to swim and had some life-saving lessons at a small Lopez home pool. The saved woman and I exchanged Christmas cards for years afterwards.”

This could have happened today or tomorrow. Could you save a child or adult who was drowning in front of your eyes? Or could you be the one drowning? Lopez is surrounded by water, has many summer ponds and many Lopezians enjoy being out on the water in boats. The Friends of Lopez Island Pool want to raise the community capacity to be safe living on our island surrounded by water. We want to have the opportunity to have a pool that Lopezians and visitors can swim and enjoy year-round in comfort of 85-degree water.

Until that reality happens, FLIP brings the whole elementary school, every spring, to swim at the Anacortes Fidalgo pool. More than 100 children come over a two-day period- this year May 27-28 to experience the fun that can happen in warm water. In order to swim in the deeper end of the pool, kids must pass a test to swim the length. Amazingly, 70 percent of our kids have to stay in the crowded shallow end wearing life vests, while their swimmer friends frolic in the deeper end.

The Lopez Resource summer swimming lessons are great. But each lasts only one week out of the year. FLIP wants a pool to benefit the cross section this entire community. FLIP is in the detail-rich planning stage of a campaign to have a swim center sooner than later. Look for us at the Farmers’ Market, learn more in the Weekly, come to our monthly meetings, go to www.lopezislandpool.org, watch for announcement of our July 25 SPLASH event on our Center Road property.