Throwing crumbs out to the city's hard working families...that's how I feel about the city's plans to replace Worcester's public pools with sprinkler systems.

As a young and shy girl growing up in Worcester County, Clinton Mass., my mother couldn't afford to pay for a parks and recreation membership for three girls. The alternative, a great one, was socializing with other kids from my neighborhood, Lakeside Ave, and walk about 1/2 mile to the public pool. With my finely made tuna fish sandwich kept cool with a frozen Cool Ssips drink and a small baggy of chips all kept in a small plastic receptacle bundled up in towel and shoved in a backpack, we headed out in a groups of three, four, often times more. Our ages ranged from 10-13 yrs old. Sometimes my mom would give me a dollar for the ice cream truck in addition to a couple of quarters for the pool fee. The 50 cents was an entrance fee to a well deserved summer vacation surrounded by friends and water activity, swimming all morning and afternoon and spending my weeks gearing up to graduate from small diving board jumps to the really, really high one. I felt like i was climbing a mountain when i ascended those diving board steps, butterflies in stomach I often wanted to reverse my steps and sometimes i did, but there was great satisfaction to rid those nervous feelings by simply jumping off and wanting to do it again. Facing a fear, a valuable lesson learned at a tender age.

My Summers at the public pool were filled with loads of physical activity for my young muscles, and most importantly stress-relieving hours away from (sometimes) chaotic neighborhood drama. These appreciated hours at the pool would otherwise be resting in front of the television set all summer long if my public pool was closed. I have great memories when thinking about my countless hours, Summer after Summer, looking forward to swimming in a safe spot.

I am now thirty years old and I have an eleven yr.old nephew living in Worcester. He and all of Worcester City children who don't have a private pool deserve to spend their Summer afternoons swimming it away, diving into it, not sprinkling it away. Worcester children, Worcester Families, and Worcester residents who want positive outlets should see this as a needed investment and urge their representatives, school teachers, and neighbors to fight to maintain all nine public swimming pools in working condition.

Concerned citizen,
Nilda Ortiz