Stew Leonard’s swim school to open new pool in Norwalk
— More than three decades after Stew Leonard III died in a drowning accident, the water safety foundation named in his honor will open a pool in the city this spring.
Young “Stewie” as he was known, the son of Kim and Stew Leonard Jr., died months shy of his second birthday in 1989. Now, the Stew Leonard III Water Safety Foundation is constructing an indoor pool near the flagship Stew Leonard’s dairy store in Norwalk.
“It’s been a lifelong dream. It’s like some place you’ve always wanted to go and do in your life,” said Stew Leonard Jr., CEO of the family business. “I always wanted to do it. I dreamed of it, had it all designed in my head, and we just never had the right opportunity to pull the trigger on it and do it.”
The idea of a constructing a pool in Norwalk remained a dream until the coronavirus pandemic created an opportunity, Leonard said.
“We have a building where Liberty Travel and Pet Value were,” he said. “They both went out of business because of COVID. The space was just sitting there empty and one day Kim (Leonard) and I said, ‘Now is our time, baby, let’s hit it while it’s hot.’ We leased the space, and we’re under construction right now. They’re digging the pool as we’re speaking.”
Groundbreaking on the pool was Jan. 11, and it is set to open in late spring or early summer, Leonard said. The pool is located at 55 Westport Ave., next to the company’s wines and spirits shop.
The couple visited more than 100 pools across the country to determine what makes for the best environment and instruction for learning to swim, Leonard said.
The focus at the Stewie the Duck Swim School will be on teaching young children basic water safety, with a “sweet spot” between the ages of 3 and 5, Leonard said.
“Our son, when I found him, was floating face down in the pool. And one of the very first things you do in the beginning of swim lessons is getting parents and children to teach the child to roll over on their back and float,” Leonard said. “If we could’ve done that with our son, things would be a lot different today.”
As the swimming school gains its footing and establishes a customer base, the foundation will consider expanding programs and possibly include lessons for children with special needs or disabilities, Leonard said.
“There’s many opportunities for us with the swim school,” he said. “One of my nephews has an autistic son and he was asking about doing special needs training at the school, which we may do one day. There’s a senior center next to us, we’re talking about maybe offering to the seniors some type of water aerobics type of class. There’re so many opportunities — but right now we want to focus on teaching children.”
To ensure children from low-income households get a chance to learn valuable water safety skills, the foundation plans to establish a rewards program, so when parents purchase five swim lessons, one lesson will be “donated” to a child who cannot afford it, Leonard said.
“We are going to charge $30 a lesson, and if you buy five lessons at once you are going to donate one free one for an underprivileged child, so it’s almost like Robin Hood, take from the rich and give to the poor,” he said.
Since its formation in 1990, the Stew Leonard III Water Safety Foundation has raised $6 million toward water safety awareness and education and also has funded 10,000 free or low-cost swimming lessons to children annually, according to Sarah Caro, the foundation’s director of charitable giving.
The foundation also provides funding to certify 200 to 300 lifeguards annually, Caro said. Most of the foundation’s charitable efforts and funds go toward local communicates in the tri-state area, she said.
“We provide funding for scholarships and a portion goes to lifeguard training and funding,” Caro said. “With the grants typically, a large portion go to YMCAs, Boys and Girls Clubs and local recreation departments to provide swim lessons down at Calf Pasture. We also provide funding for camps that work with children who are under-resourced.”
No public pool in Norwalk
The Stewie the Duck Swim School will be one of few public pools in Norwalk, which has no city-owned and operated public pool.
The idea of adding a city pool has been frequently discussed and floated throughout the decades, but nothing concrete was ever formulated, said Pam Raila, aquatics director for the Norwalk Recreation and Parks Department. To Raila’s knowledge, a city pool has never existed in Norwalk.
“There’s always talk about a city pool, it just hasn’t come to fruition,” Raila said. “I know it’s an expensive endeavor. Whether it’s to build it or to run a pool, it’s expensive.”
During the winter, lessons are provided after school and on weekends at Norwalk High School, Raila said. The need for a pool is one of the reasons a pool was included in the plans for new Norwalk High School.
Swimming lessons are taught through Rec and Parks at Calf Pasture Beach during the summer and at the school during the colder months, Raila said.
“In the past we got a grant from Stew Leonard’s Water Safety Foundation, and we have used that to run lessons at the beach in July and August,” she said. The beach is such a “wonderful facility, and that’s where I learned how to swim. We thought that would be perfect place to have lessons. Mother Nature has been kind to us for the most part.”
The Rec and Parks Department is interested in collaborating with Stewie the Duck Swim School, and Raila said she is welcoming the new addition to the city.
“We have a very large city and a very large need for kids to learn how to swim,” she said. “We live on water and it’s such an important skill. The more organizations helping the community the better.”