Holiday House pool focuses on family
The days of only being able to take a cold shower after swimming at the Holiday House Recreation Center may be coming to an end.
Some people have said they’d like to swim during their lunch break, but don’t do so now because they can’t shower before returning to work, Frank Szymendera, a member of the West Rockhill-Sellersville Joint Recreation Authority, said.
“By next year, we hope to have hot and cold running water in the baths,” Szymendera told attendees at this year’s Burger & Birch night held Friday, July 19, at the pool on Washington Avenue in West Rockhill.
While improvements have been made and more are planned, the overall focus of the facility remains the same, he said.
“We are not turning this place into a theme park,” Szymendera said. “It is gonna remain a family center.”
“That’s what makes Holiday
House stand out,” agreed DJ Mike Trotter, of Wham Jam Entertainment.
A rock climbing wall, now in its third year, was added in recent years at the Olympic-sized pool. It also has a lone, relatively small slide, but won’t go the water park route that has been followed by some other towns, HoliGDy HRuVH RIfiFLDOV VDy.
Trotter said he’s been coming to Holiday House for at least 15 years, both as a DJ and a pool user.
“We brought our here,” he said.
Ryan Nolan, 17, of Souderton, said he thinks he came to Holiday House as a young FKLOG, EuW WKLV wDV KLV fiUVW recent time back.
“It was hot out. Let’s go to the pool,” Nolan said.
While there, he took part in the crazy diving contest held at the Burger & Birch, won the contest and received a free T-shirt and his choice of an item from the snack shop. He picked pizza.
Nolan, who said he’s not a diver, said he patterned his dives in the contest after WUDPSROLnH flLSV.
Twelve-year-old Christian Perrine, of Sellersville, said he usually comes to the pool once or twice a week.
“Two of our daughters are guards,” his mother, Melissa Perrine, said.
“They took swimming lessons here. Now they’re guards,” she said. “Holiday House has been part of the family.”
Husband Kevin Perrine said he’s worked the grill at Burger & Birch in previous years. This year, he was cashiering as people placed their orders and made their payment.
For $1.50, attendees had
kids their choice of a hamburger or hot dog, along with a drink.
“I remember when it used to be a dollar,” Kevin Perrine said.
It’s still a good though, he said.
“If you want chips, that brings it up to a whole $2,” he said.
Jeff Markley, chairman of the West Rockhill-Sellersville Joint Recreation Authority and this year’s cook, estimated he’d made about 200 hamburgers and 100 hot dogs.
Special events at the pool include the Burger & Birch and Flick & Float movie presentations, he said.
“We decided since we get such good attendance at the Burger & Birch to go right into the Flick & Float,” Markley said.
The movie “Brave” was scheduled to be shown in the Flick & Float July 19, but because of bad weather that moved in after the Burger & Birch, it was postponed un-
buy, til July 26. It was the second Flick & Float of the year; the fiUVW wDV “0RnVWHUV ,nF.”
$WWHnGDnFH fiJuUHV IRU MuVW the Burger & Birch were not available, lifeguard Brody Miller said, but 523 people had come to the pool that day as of about 7 p.m. July 19.
That’s a little more than average, Miller and pool manager Jamie Krouse said.
“Our average day is 400 to 500 people,” Miller said.
In the past week, there had been three incidents involving head, neck or spinal injuries at the pool, Krouse said. That brought the total such incidents this year to six, she said, after several years in which there were none.
Staff members handled the situations well in preparation for emergency medical services providers, she said.
“Patrons told me it couldn’t have gone smoother,” Krouse said. “The entire staff responded like a welloiled machine.”
The nearby Grand View HRVSLWDO, wKLOH nRW RIfiFLDOOy DIfiOLDWHG wLWK WKH SRRO, KDV also helped out by donating newer-style backboards to be used at the pool in emergencies, as well as loaning D GHfiEULOODWRU GuULnJ WKH swimming season, Markley said.
“They’re a real good partner,” Markley said.
Holiday House is hoping to get the funding to pay for the planned addition of the hot water through money raised by small games of chance at a local organization, he said. State law requires that organizations licensed to hold small games of chance keep no more than 30 percent of the money brought in by the games and distribute the rest for community programs.
To see more photos and video from the Burger
& Birch event, visit PerkasieNewsHerald.com!