It’s a beautiful thing when people
join forces to help those in need, seeking
no reward other than the smiles on their
faces.
That’s what happened in Eatonville,
Fla., this spring. The residents of
Eatonville had watched their community
pool drift into disrepair and finally close
due to lack of funding — a scenario
played out in communities all across the
country.
But this time, instead of just
surrounding the former site of happy
splashing, swimming and horseplay
with a rusty chain-link fence and
forgetting about the problem, a coalition
of pool and spa companies stepped up
and did something.
Led by Don Garden, chief operating
officer at All Seasons Pools, these
companies donated precious time,
sweat and expensive equipment to turn
a shuttered eyesore into a glistening
aquatic playhouse.
The group recognized what a
crucial gathering point the Eatonville
Community pool was, and they locked
arms to bring it back to life. It truly
was a case of coming together to help
people come together.
The new pool will be a center of learning for those developing their swimming skills, and Step Into Swim pitched in with $20,000 to aid the effort. Shown here (below) along with Eatonville Community Members is, at left, swimming icon Rowdy Gaines, Don Garden, and SIS Board of Directors member Melissa Mishoe. Elsewhere can be found Carecraft CEO Greg Howard and our own Sabeena Hickman.
IT STARTS WITH AN IDEA
The Eatonville pool was once a staple of
the community, with parties, swimming
lessons and kids meeting up every day
all summer. But it closed 10 years ago
as deterioration became hazardous, and
the community did not have the funds to
bring it up to code.
Local resident Valerie Chambers grew
up near the pool and bitterly rued its
loss as it sat lonely for years, surrounded
by weeds and half filled with green water.
“I wished the pool was still open for the
kids, because they couldn’t experience
[what I did growing up],” she told WFTV news.
That’s when All Seasons Pool stepped
in. The pool’s funding problem surfaced
again on local TV news last summer.
Garden saw it and felt like he needed to
do something. “So I just decided, ‘Hey,
I’m going to allocate our advertising
money. We really haven’t had to advertise
the last few years — our referral rate has
been like 65% of our business. Let’s just
allocate that money to fix the pool.’
“I mean, in anyone’s career, how
often do you have the opportunity to
help an entire community?”
Garden reached out to the town
and set up a meeting with the mayor
and financial director and said, “I’ll get
it done for you guys, but nobody else
can be involved because when there’s a
committee, nothing gets accomplished.
That means I have to manage it, run it,
own it, and it’ll happen.
“And they said, ‘Okay.’
In December Garden met again with
the city, outlined all the renovations that
were planned, and signed a contract to
perform said renovations for $0. They
would start January 10 and have the
pool open by Memorial Day. The crews
climbed in, took it down to the gunite
shell and started from there.
EQUIPMENT POURS IN
As it always does in our tight-knit
industry, word spread quickly about the
project. Soon equipment companies got
wind of the effort, and that Garden was
funding it all himself. “They all started
calling, saying, ‘We want to be part of
it.’ Alliance pavers, Dandy Pool Corp, I
mean, so many companies just stepped
up, and something that should have
cost $400,000 only ended up costing
$100,000 because of all the generosity
of all those industry partners.”
Garden was truly humbled by the
massive outpouring of support. “It was
amazing — the value of the products
that were donated. I mean, you got
SR Smith’s top of the line handrails
and ladders and you’ve got a pool lift
and equipment in the pump room
and salt systems — and you’ve got
really great two by two tiles for a really
modern tile job. The renovation wasn’t
something that we just put a bandaid
on, it looks like a pool that was just
newly constructed in 2024. Everything is
modern.”
“It was a blessing,” said Chambers
simply.
THE MEANING BECOMES
CLEAR
The meaning of the story is the way a
single generous impulse can grow and
multiply to the size of a monumental
achievement. And once that spirit has
gained momentum, it carries on under
its own power.
To get the pool started off on the
right foot, All Seasons committed to
taking care of it until October, and others
have stepped up to help cover ongoing
costs.
“Some people are reaching out to
donate money to cover service. An
aircraft and a chemical company have
each offered to donate a year’s worth
of chemicals. So that’s really going to
help. And then there’s people in the
community now that want to donate
money for maintenance and swim
lessons and events and stuff like that. So
it’s starting to grow.”
The pool hosted a cookout event with
kids from the local schools to celebrate
the opening. Seeing the joyful faces
gathered around the pool struck a chord
in the staff of All Seasons, who had
spent hours hammering out old finish
and cutting in new equipment.
“The day after the event,” Garden
says, “I started getting texts from
my employees. They said now they
understood why we worked so hard to
help bring back that pool.”
This article first appeared in the August 2024 issue of AQUA Magazine — the top resource for retailers, builders and service pros in the pool and spa industry. Subscriptions to the print magazine are free to all industry professionals. Click here to subscribe.
