Queen Creek hosting aquatics center bash to welcome back family swim

The start of the summer season is traditionally ushered in on Memorial Day. This year, Queen Creek plans to start the fun a few days earlier with its Pool-a-Palooza.

Pool-a-Palooza will run from noon to 3 p.m., Saturday, May 23, at the Queen Creek Recreation & Aquatic Center.

The event marks the start of family-swim time as the summer break takes hold.

“It’s a great opportunity to bring the community together to celebrate the aquatic center reopening for family swim for the summer,” said Joey LaNeve, the town’s aquatic supervisor. “We also want to make sure that we provide an opportunity to educate our patrons, our community on water safety and the importance of drowning prevention.”

The Queen Creek Fire Department will be on hand to provide life-saving information, as will the center’s lifeguards.

“We’ll have a booth set up with our lifeguards to help educate patrons about life jacket use and making sure that life jackets are fitted properly, what it means to wear a Coast Guard-approved life jacket, as opposed to a normal personal flotation device,” LaNeve said. “We’re going to have some water safety coloring book pages for any swimmers who don’t want to be in the pool.”

There will also be music and games along with competitions to see who can get the fastest times going down the center’s water slides.
The event is free to center members, and town residents can buy day passes running from $5 to $7 per adult. Discounted day passes are available for kids aged 18 months to 17 years, military active and veteran service members, and senior adults aged 55 years and older. Children 17 months and younger get free admission with a guardian who purchases a day pass.

Information on memberships and fees can be found at tinyurl.com/54a69ark.

The Queen Creek Recreation & Aquatic Center has been open for just more than a year and is sifting through feedback from residents. But staff is already heeding two issues.

There were complaints of kids ages 9-12 wandering around the center. Too old for childcare but too young for teens activities, the tweens were left rudderless. As a result, the town has opened Hangout Headquarters — a separate space for the youngsters that offers programs and activities, according to Erica Perez, deputy director for parks and recreation.

Residents also asked for more family swim time hours and the town answered. From May 23 to July 19, family swim will be available from noon to 5 p.m., Monday-Friday; noon to 6 p.m., Saturday; and noon to 4 p.m. on Sundays.

During Family Swim hours all pool amenities are open including the lazy river, water slides and diving boards.

Twice a month starting on May 23 through Aug. 26, the aquatic center will also have sunset swim hours from 6 to 8 p.m.

Pool-a-Palooza is the first event of the summer for the center, but not the last. Residents can also look forward to the July 4th Splash Bash where families can celebrate America’s 250th birthday with games and activities, including tie-dyeing, water balloons, lazy river bingo and water volleyball.

July 4th Splash Bash runs from noon to 4 p.m., Saturday, July 4.

Janet Perez can be reached at jperez@iniusa.org. Please send your comments about this article to AzOpinions@iniusa.org. We are committed to publishing a wide variety of reader opinions, as long as they meet our Civility Guidelines.