By Stephen Dick, Herald Bulletin Associate Editor
ALEXANDRIA — Last winter, when no one was thinking about taking a dip in a swimming pool, Alexandria announced that there wasn’t enough money in the budget to open the pool in Beulah Park come Memorial Day weekend.
Four women in Alexandria decided that Alex needed the pool to be open, just as it had been every summer. So Mayor Jack Woods made them a deal: If they could raise $50,000 for a new pool liner, the city would pick up the tab for maintenance and repairs to the pool’s base.
Sherri Brown, Vanessa Hosier and Penny Stevens - collectively known as the pool ladies - took the challenge and went to work. They started a series of fundraisers including walking across town on a cold March day in their swimsuits. They were joined by many other townspeople.
All of a sudden they were famous. NBC’s Today Show and NBC Nightly News did segments on the women. They showed up in USA Today and the Associated Press.
It didn’t take long for the mayor to announce the pool would be open. The Save the Summer fund, as the women called it, saved the day. One anonymous donor dropped in $10,000.
The weather prevented the opening on Memorial Day weekend, but the pool was ready for swimmers the first weekend of June and the gates opened.
Hosier called the opening a “wonderful, wonderful day.”
