Avoca Friends of the Pool needs your help!

Avoca is a small regional town situation under the Pyrenees Ranges in Victoria, surrounded by numerous small farming communities with limited facilities. One of the Avoca’s facilities is the local swimming pool which is opened three (3) months a year during the summer months, allowing an outlet for locals, allowing them to socialise, maintain health and wellbeing and attend events held on the location by the Pyrenees Shire Council, Pool Management (Belgravia), and Avoca Friends of the Pool (Avoca FoP).

The Avoca FoP is a not-for-profit organisation, who actively fundraise and apply for community grants all year round, to make improvements to the Avoca Swimming Pool at the communities requests with past fundraising purchases being pool blankets, shade sails, picnic table and chairs to mention a few. We have several projects which we are in the process of which still need further financial input such as shade sails installation, art projects, lawn activities at the Avoca Swimming Pool, which we were focusing on this season.

Our priorities quickly changed when a community member approached our committee and advised of a young person in the community who this season cannot attend the local pool due to an incurable physical condition. This young person was previously utilising the pool for their mental and physical health, exercise, schooling activities and allowing the child to participate in pool fun with friends with no limitations. This season this young person can no longer access the pool due to having no way of entering or exiting the pool safely, affecting the young persons life and mental well-being, as well the lives of the family and interaction with school friends outside of the school grounds, creating an alienation from the community and school swimming events.

As a community orientated group, Avoca FoP knew this was a request we could not postpone and we could also see the limited access other members of the community have to the swimming pool, such as the elderly, rehabilitation participants, disabled and other physically challenged persons, while they can access the grounds, they cannot access any form of entry into the swimming pool or do so safely or without causing further injury.

Without hesitation the Avoca FoP committee agreed to commence the sourcing and procurement of a Pool Lift to be installed into the 25-metre pool as an urgent priority.

Avoca FoP committee have now became the advocate for this purchase and with the support of Pyrenees Shire Council, Pool Management (Belgravia) and Cr Ron Eason the Pool Lift is being treated as a priority and will be installed once received.

With the assistance of the GoFundMe campaign, we are seeking to raise $10,000.00 to make this request a reality and aim to raise the funds as a priority during this pool season with the installation to be completed as soon as possible, so our members of the community can enjoy some small “normal” activities while they can continue to do so.

The Avoca Friends of the Pool cannot thank you all enough for supporting our cause, allowing members of our community to continue to be apart of our little community, and ability to enjoy their limited season at the Avoca Swimming Pool.