APPLETON, WI (WTAQ-WLUK) – A Fox Valley organization that started out in a backyard swimming pool is now growing.
Wisconsin Swim Academy Fox Cities broke ground on its new swim facility Friday on Evergreen Drive in Appleton.
The academy says the new 6,000 square-foot aquatic center will allow it to provide swimming lessons to both children and adults in one location.
The new center will include a warm temperature-controlled pool, an observation area, spacious men’s and women’s locker rooms with showers and restrooms, office area, in addition to a retail area within the lobby.
Owner Susie Van Ekeren says they’ve come a long way since it was established in 2007 as a way to pay for a heater for her backyard pool.
The organization began with 25 students and now has 500. The lessons are currently taught at various rented pools throughout the Fox Valley.
Van Ekeren tells FOX 11 teaching swim has been a heartfelt journey that she hopes to continue.
“I really started because we were trying to pay for a heater in our backyard pool that we had just put in and then when I started doing it, I had all these kids in my backyard and I started to realize how incredibly rewarding it was, that aha moment, that moment where it takes them from where you are assisting them 100% to them swimming to you independently and how excited they got.”
Construction is expected to be completed by the spring of 2020.
Wisconsin Swim Academy says a child dies from drowning every minute across the world, and drowning is the number one cause of death in children under the age of four.
The academy is also partnering with the Hope Floats Foundation to provide scholarships for swimming lessons.
