Water Safety – Red Cross swim lessons get under way

Ryan Mellons gets a breath while bobbing at Gilley Pool.

‘When the pool was over at Riverfront Park, I remember signing up and taking lessons later that night,’ said Phillips. ‘That was back when they pumped the water out of the river and had a treatment facility above the pool. I was 6 years old at the time and there’s no telling how long the Red Cross offered free lessons before that.’

Now 46 years later the Red Cross is still offering free swim lessons, only a few things have changed. For starters, the lessons are taught at picturesque Gilley Pool, now in its fifth year of operation.

And Phillips, now 52, is director of the program with his wife, Becky, and Jean Gilley.

Monday was opening night for this year’s lessons that are taught in two, two-week sessions. A total of 565 people are signed up to receive free lessons with over 50 volunteers on board to make sure the program stays afloat.

The program has come a long way from when Phillips was a boy.

‘Back then, we might of had 40 people,’ said Phillips when asked to estimate the number of kids taking lessons. ‘But that pool was so small, it wasn’t even as big as the pavilion that’s over there now.’