Not all small towns have swimming pools. Those that do know the pool is one of the most popular hubs of community activities during the summer. Tripp, South Dakota, population 600…is one of them.
Their pool was built in 1969, and they’re raising funds to build a new one. The fundraising goal is 4 to 5 million dollars.
Caleb Finck chairs the Tripp Legacy campaign. “Not only by lots of kids, there are people we’ve kind of discovered from about 10 different communities, not even including Tripp, that travel to Tripp just for swimming lessons,” Finck said. “And on top of that, there’s a group of folks that are doing water aerobics.”
Yet some community members believe it’s not a good investment as Parkston is just 12 miles away and has a pool. But that’s almost 25 miles of round trip driving every day, to go swimming. Finck has a different view. “There are things that sometimes don’t make money, they’re a break-even game or they lose some money, and that’s just a fact of life,” Finck shared. “There’s recreational facilities that we need to have for our children and for just everybody.”
The legacy campaign wants to build a pool with the same features and depths…and add a zero entrance on one end.
$110,000 has been raised thus far.