Statement by President, Sam Kane
Saturday 21 March 2020
It was 2,644 days ago that I joined the campaign to save and reopen Golden Square Pool – and in that time hundreds of volunteers have worked hard to transform a tired swimming pool into a vibrant community gathering space.
From health and wellbeing classes, learn to swim lessons, live music events, a Junior Volunteer Team, off season community events and more – our wonderful team have created a place that doesn’t exist elsewhere, and is so important to our future.
Just over 105,000 patrons have enjoyed what our team have done since 2013, and we couldn’t be more honoured to run this space and provide a resource for our community.
No more obvious to me has our pool’s value been than this week when our community came together to show council it needs to remain, after we learnt that a decision on whether to keep us open for a further four years was on this month’s council agenda.
Letters, emails, posts and more were sent from residents, describing why our pool was so important to them – “community hub”, “safe family friendly place” and “connection” just some of the hundreds of phrases used.
However, on Wednesday we learnt that such decision would be delayed for another three months. This would allow for further consultation to occur with wider stakeholders about the entire precinct, to allow questions to be answered, and, hopefully, see a plan for collaboration and the future developed.
While initially disappointed at a delay, I’ve since had many community members, patrons and volunteers get in touch and remind us to keep powering on.
So, just as we have over the past seven years, we will.
We’ll keep spreading our positive story, volunteers will start planning for next summer, we’ll keep developing new programs to engage our community, and we’ll keep planting and producing produce in our community garden – which next week will see us harvest our first batch of potatoes to hand over to Bendigo Foodshare, to help those most in need.
Out of all of this, and as our volunteers and patrons show me every day, is being positive, coming together, helping out and simply smiling can go a long way to making a difference to whatever challenge or problem – big or small.
And, at a time where there’s increased uncertainty in our city and world, it’s that kindness, and always reminding each other of community, that will help us get through and rise above.
Background on Golden Square Pool:
Golden Square Pool – winning awards for innovation and significant contribution to the local community. Read about our awards:
Our 2018/2019 Annual Report contains all the details from our last season, including numbers, programs, innovations, supporters and achievements.
View our 2020 - 2024 strategic plan
We’ve been here before. Read about the last campaign to keep Golden Square Pool open. Since then we have gone from strength to strength. We have passed every test that City of Greater Bendigo has placed before us – and proven we have a viable model for this space, seen continued patronage growth, and increased members and volunteers.
