Water Safety

Cloquet Community Educaiton and Recreation, in conjunction with the City of Cloquet Parks Department, provides ARC swimming lessons, as well as manages public use of the Beach at Pinehurst Park and the indoor swimming pool at Cloquet Middle School. Swimming lessons are not only provided to students that attend the Cloquet Public Schools, but also the surrounding school districts of Esko, Carlton, Wrenshall, Moose Lake, and Barnum which lack swimming pools. In the past year, over 1200 children have participated in the 168 group and private swim lessons offered. Nearly 700 participated in Friday Family Swim nights last spring at the Cloquet Middle School pool. Last summer, close to 100 families purchased a family pass to the Beach at Pinehurst Park resulting in over 2500 visits by passholders. Passholders account for approximately 35% of the total attendance at the Beach at Pinehurst Park. Despite these statistics, due to recent increased prices of lessons and Beach/Friday night swim passes to meet expenses, there is a barrier for low-income familes to particpate. Funding would provide scholarships to those families to enroll in swim lessons and/or purchase summer Beach or Friday Family Swim passes. Funding would also be used to cerify low-income teenagers as either Lifeguards and/or WSI Instructors. This would allow us to increase the number of swimming lessons and family swim nights being offered. The primary goals for funding activities are to increase swimming ability, to increase access to lifeguarded swim areas, and to provide an opportunity for low income teenagers to obtain Lifeguard and/or WSI certification. We anticipate that participants in swim lessons will increase their swim level by one level (according to Red Cross standards); Beach and Friday nights pass scholarship families will have over 500 visits to the two facilites; and an additional 30 swim lesson classes will be offered with the increase in WSI staff.