SPLASH receives donation from games of skill
PUNXSUTAWNEY — Save Punxsy’s Local Area Swimming Hole (SPLASH) received some much-needed grant money in the amount of $5,795 from Pennsylvania Skill during a presentation at the Mahoning East Civic Center for the George C. Brown Community Pool
Joe Weidner, Pennsylvania Skill, presented the check to Denise Geist of SPLASH.
“This kind of took off after the pandemic. We gave $250,000 to the Pennsylvania food banks,” Weidner said. “That goes out statewide. Typically, our grants are not that large; they’re more in the $5,000 to $10,000 range. We give to municipalities, police, fire, EMS and a lot of charitable groups as well.”
He said their games are located in VFWs, and they give a lot of money to veterans.
Weidner said they’ve been a lifeline for fraternal clubs because the money from the small games of chance they do has to go to charity.
“If their roof breaks or their freezer breaks, they can use the money they receive from our games or anything they want,” he said. “The game is essentially tic-tac-toe, and what makes it a skill game and you can win every time, if there’s not a simmer on the board, you can go in and there’s an additional portion of the game that is basically like the Simon game and win back 105 percent of everything they put in.”
He said they are not covered under the gambling act, as they are games of skill, not games of chance.
“We want to make sure that what we do is being a good corporate citizen; that is whey we do these checks, as we gave $1 million last year,” Weidner said. “If you don’t see their logo on it, Meeley Manufacturing, and if it doesn’t say Paceamatic on it, then it’s not our game.”
“I tell everyone that we give a grant to, apply every year,” Weidner said.
Geist said the pool put the money to good use. It will cover a lot of unavoidable expenses the pool is going to have this year.
“The safety filter covers, backboard for the lifeguards the old one is quite heavy, the new one would be much lighter,” Geist said, adding that the rescue tubes are at their life expectancy and are beginning to crack and peel.
There is also a need for new lifeguard umbrellas.
“Five umbrellas would provide an umbrella on the five most used tables,” Geist said. “They need to have an umbrella so they can keep everyone safe.”
She said the Stenner pumps are used to add the chlorine and muriatic acid to the water to keep it safe for swimming.
“We have four pumps in use at all times; we would like to replace two of them to ensure the proper chemical balance in the water,” Geist said, adding that there are upgrades that are needed as well.