In April, 2019, Lithia Motors helped the Southern Oregon Aquatic Community (SOAC) create six videos about the Daniel Meyer Memorial Pool in Ashland—on the pool’s history, the health benefits of swimming, water safety and drowning statistics, and more. These videos appear below.
THANK YOU LITHIA MOTORS! Your generous contribution of time and expertise to this community-wide effort of providing a better pool for Ashland residents is greatly appreciated.
A BETTER POOL FOR ASHLAND
“It was built in 1983. Thirty-five to 40 years is when people start to think about how are we going to replace our community pool. . . . Every year at Daniel Meyer, we see more and more issues coming up. To limp it along, we’ve reached the end of that. That’s why the Parks Commission put together a subcommittee to explore, one, if there’s a need to replace this pool and, two, how we are going to do that moving forward.” — Mike Oxendine, Parks Superintendent, Ashland Parks and Recreation
HOW A POOL BENEFITS A COMMUNITY
“It’s an amenity, it contributes to the quality of life in the town. If you had a pool that was seen as a community asset, open year-round, you could end up with a swimming and aquatics culture developing in this area.” – Todd Landry, AHS Swim Coach “You get to meet your neighbors. It’s a great social spot.” – Frank Philips, Senior Citizen “Every day after school I come to the pool and I think I’m so glad that we have a pool to swim at, it’s a great privilege.” — Hunter Oliver, AHS Student
KEEPING OUR KIDS SAFE
“Here in Jackson County, since 2006, we’ve had 24 drowning deaths in just the summer months only. And in the two-year period between 2012 and 2014 in the state of Oregon, 38 children died from drowning.” — Rebecca Kay, Ad Hoc Pool Committee
THE BEST EXERCISE EVER
“The wonderful thing about water is that it gives you that resistance and lets you decide how much resistance you want to work with, what range of motion, what it’s like to really stretch that range of motion. It keeps me flexible and it keeps me strong.” — Richard Smith, Senior Citizen
YOUNG ATHLETES
“Team building, leadership, setting goals, working together and trying to have fun while doing it, but still making progress. Water polo is all of those things.” — Lucy Gramley, AHS Water Polo “I definitely formed a lot of friendships that are super close from water polo. I remember when I was a freshman, how the seniors and juniors and sophomores treated me and helped me. Now I’m that senior who gets a chance to impact someone else’s life.” — Alex Westrick, AHS Water Polo
REHABILITATION AND RESTORATION
“There’s a lot of research about exercise in the water and the physical benefits to our cardiovascular system and our muscular system—and there’s also the emotional benefits. For people who have weight bearing restrictions, the buoyancy of water really helps relieve those aches and pains….The pool is a wonderful place for people to rehab.” — Jocelyn Sanford, Physical Therapist
