BLUE BEAUTY
Ky pool party is a splash hit, with biggest turnout ever
Blue Light Discos have stood the test of time in Kyabram — the latest instalment of the Blue Light Pool Party making a huge splash last week.
Kyabram’s Generation Z population turned out in force for the town’s fourth annual Blue Light Pool Party on Friday night.
More than 170 kids filled the local pool, which Kyabram Senior Constable Mitchell Bull said was the biggest such event in the town’s history.
Two police cars and a fire truck were parked outside the Kyabram pool with their lights flashing, a beacon for the steady stream of kids pouring in at 6pm for the much-anticipated event.
The obvious favourite was the inflatable obstacle course — the kids traversing the slippery lumps and bumps as the lifeguards hosed them down.
And the Kyabram fire brigade was popular too, parking its truck next to the pool and spraying the kids with the fire hose while they played.
The ladies from the Kyabram Rotary Club were cooking up a storm with a barbecue fundraiser, providing some poolside snags in bread, while Ky P-12 College blasted out the music.
Some of the kids even came up with impromptu games, which consisted of climbing on top of the inflatables, and then throwing themselves in the pool.
This was so popular that the other children were drawn like moths to a flame and soon the inflatables were struggling to stay afloat under the sheer exuberance of seven kids at once.
And when they weren’t wrestling with the inflatables, they were playing pool volleyball with beach balls that were slightly too large for the game. The balls would bounce randomly, sometimes off the hands of a kid, sometimes the head.
The fate of the Kyabram pool was in question up until a few weeks ago after multiple attempts by council to decommission seven community pools in Campaspe Shire.
This culminated in January with more than 100 participants at the Save Our Pools rally pressuring council into a unanimous decision to put off the decision on the future of the shire’s outdoor pools until May 2023.
But despite the pool saga, attendance has increased every year at the Blue Light Pool Party since it began four years ago, Sen Constable Bull said. This year organisers were expecting around 150 young people to attend, which was exceeded.
“With the lifeguards and police officers there it just provides that bit more of a safe and supervised environment,” Sen Constable Bull said.
“The pool is kept up to regulations so you know what's in the water, it’s safe to be swimming in.”
As with all Blue Light events, once parents drop off their kids they can’t leave until parents physically pick them up again.
“So, it’s not like it gets to 8:30pm and everybody’s booted out and wandering the streets, it’s a supervised event and that’s as far as it goes,” Sen Constable Bull said.
It’s an event that builds relationships in the community across generations.
“You've got local police officers, firefighters, SES members, a few of the teachers volunteer ... so the kids get that chance to meet or socialise with local community leaders in a more informal environment. It's not a ‘yes ma’am, no sir, three bags full’ type of setting,” Sen Constable Bull said.
“Everyone's there to have a good time and it's a chance for reputation building between police and young people but also between local businesses, teachers and the rest.
“Teachers may get to see the bad side of the kids or the good side of kids in the classroom.
“But they might actually get the chance to sort of learn a bit more about them or have that bit more of a rapport building rather than just sitting behind a desk.”