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EDITOR’S NOTE: The following was submitted by Kara Lynne McGillicuddy and is an interview with incoming Winchester High School freshman Kaylee Guo, who led a team of five other classmates (Vivian Busold, Bea Canzano, Ellie Nguy, Alyssa Vineis, and Mia Watson) who donated a grand total of $753.85 to Swim Winchester for their eighth-grade Civics Action Project with teacher John Friberg last May.
This interview has been edited for style and grammar.
KARA LYNNE MCGILLICUDDY: What was your presentation like for the Civics Action Project?
KAYLEE GUO: We didn’t really have a presentation; it was more like a reflection on our project. We basically just described what our project was, who our project was for and then how we did it, our action plan. We explained everything about our fundraiser: who Swim Winchester was and what they’re about.
Our main goal was to raise awareness as it was in middle school, so we weren’t that much into raising money. We were more into raising awareness because we did a survey previously for all the eighth graders asking them: how many of you guys know that Winchester is trying to build a swimming pool?
Around 51% of them knew. And that meant there was a huge portion of people who just didn’t know.
So, let’s raise awareness, and let’s just let people know that there is a swimming pool that needs to be built with Swim Winchester; and that there is an organization that is doing that. It has booths at the Farmers Market and Town Day, and they have their fundraisers in the summer.
We said stop by, check it out, and see if that’s something that interests you because a swimming pool is a great addition to the community. It could be used for all ages, little kids learning how to swim or the elderly. It’s vigorous on your body, but it’s not taking all of your energy. It’s a very nice skill to learn especially since we live near the coast.
We were not expecting to raise as much money as we did. We asked our teacher, and he said that you should have a goal for how much money you want to raise. We said what’s the highest? He said $200. We said let’s go for $150, so that’s what we were going for. We ended up raising around $470 ($476.01).
There was another group that was fundraising for youth extra-curricular activities, so they were talking about how kids in Winchester need more extra curriculars to do. I said to them: hey, if you need a place to donate your money, you should donate it to Swim Winchester because they’re trying to build a swimming pool. They raised around $250 ($277.84) in a bake sale and donated that.
KLM: This was a Civics Action Project. Civics is a social science dealing with the rights and duties of citizens. Why do you believe it is your duty or right to help bring a pool to Winchester?
KG: I learned how to swim when I was 2 and I’ve been in competition since I was 6 or 7; and it’s been this huge, major aspect of my life. It’s the only sport I do, and I am very passionate about it. I have friends at school, but a huge part of my life and my community and my identity is swimming.
My older brother has been in varsity swimming. It’s his fourth year this year, and I have seen first-hand the experience of my parents having to wake up at 5 a.m., my brother having to wake up at 5 a.m. driving him to swim practice and then coming back. I’ve seen how hard it is especially as a high schooler.
I feel like Swim Winchester has been trying to build a pool for so long; and as long as I remember, I have always been going to their summer fundraiser, the swimathon. I’ve always been donating money to them every year so that maybe we can get a swimming pool; and it would be easier on us because my parents both knew that we would go on to varsity.
I was born and raised in Winchester. I think that it is important to me to help as much as possible for future swimmers who live in Winchester. It’s really a core belief.
KLM: Why do you swim?
KG: Swimming is such a wonderful sport. It’s not something your body is trained to do as running with oxygen on land. Swimming is underwater, and you have to hold your breath. It’s not something that your body is necessarily adapted to which puts into perspective how strong swimmers are. They have so many physical barriers, but they also have mental barriers; and I feel like a lot of people don’t quite understand the mental strength that swimmers need.
It’s not a contact sport, but there’s also so much teamwork with relays and cheering for your friends at swim meets. It exerts every single part of you mentally and physically. It’s such a beautiful sport where they’ve got racers, they’ve got sprinters; and they’ve also got these people with crazy endurances that they’ve built up over time, and it’s so wonderful to see. I think that it is an amazing sport.
KLM: What do you think about swimming as a skill in terms of something that you need to have for your lifetime?
KG: It’s as important as learning how to ride a bike perhaps a little bit more important because a bike is a form of transport, but swimming is crucial especially because we live in Massachusetts. We’re right by the coast and we have the Cape.
We have so many water sports available, so many water activities open to us, so if you don’t know how to swim it could not only be dangerous, but it may completely close off activities that you could do. It’s so important and why we should build a swimming pool in Winchester, because we need the little kids to learn how to swim.
I think that it’s very important for the foundation of a kid to learn how to swim not necessarily competitively but just to be able to swim. I’ve interviewed a lot of my friends, and a lot of them don’t know how to swim; and that’s very concerning because the ocean is so accessible to us.
I’m not saying you have to learn all four strokes; just learn how to swim one stroke and make sure you can keep yourself afloat because drowning is something that kills so many people. It’s a life skill, you need to understand how to do it or else there are so many consequences that could happen.
KLM: Why do you think that Winchester needs a pool?
KG: I think Winchester needs a pool because first off, swimming is good for all ages. You’ve got the younger kids who use floats, but then they are also learning how to swim. I know especially on the Swim Winchester website there are people talking about how their kids love to swim, but they have to drive to like Woburn or Burlington or Reading; and I don’t think that parents should have to do that especially as swimming is such an important life skill.
You know there’s been a foundation working towards it (building a pool) for years, and we have this opportunity right in front of us. I feel like we really need to grasp it! We have the plan laid out, we have the foundation, we have where we want to place it, we have people working towards it. It would just be amazing for the younger kids to be able to learn how to swim and live in water.
You can swim in the winter when walking may not be accessible due to the snow and such; and you have summer where perhaps you can go to the beach, but sometimes it may be cold outside or windy or the ocean may be far from you.
Swimming can be very relaxing, and it also burns a lot of calories; so, it’s very good for people who want to stay in shape and would prefer not to run in the winter. I’ve seen at the Woburn YMCA that there are often elderly people swimming. I feel like it could be very relaxing to them just to swim and float a little bit.
It’s very good for people to stay active and healthy, and I think that swimming is a very good outlet for that where they can go especially to a pool that is so accessible to them right in the middle of town center. Swimming burns so many calories, but you don’t feel like it’s physically draining on you.
I feel like it would be such a wonderful addition to our community especially with the varsity teams. They wouldn’t have to wake up at 5 a.m. The practices would be moved to after school because it’s not going to follow the pool’s schedule. They could host home meets in their town. I also love how they have the recreational pool, and that could be used as a warm-up/warm-down pool during the meets.
I just think that not only would the varsity teams gain so much benefit from it, I think that all of Winchester would gain such an immense addition to their community. Everyone should be able to use it especially since there is a gym as well. I remember when I was little at the Woburn YMCA, I would swim by myself or with my brother while my dad would be in the gym because he did not swim. He would just workout in the gym while he was waiting for me to swim. I think that’s very nice because perhaps you don’t want to get wet; but your child would like to swim, and you could just chill there or maybe work out, or finish up work.
Also having a pool so accessible to us helps us gain more swimmers in Winchester. Basketball is so accessible. You have basketball courts everywhere, you have softball, baseball, and soccer. These are all sports that are so accessible to us, and that’s why I feel like more people are drawn to them rather than swimming.
I feel like having a swimming pool right in our town center would be so beneficial towards everyone in our community, all ages, whether you want to be competitive or just recreational.
KLM: Of all the plans for the proposed aquatic center, which feature is your favorite and why?
KG: I think firstly probably either the recreational pool or the gym because I feel like having just a regular pool is wonderful, but I also love how they added in another pool and places in thought for everyone in the community.
Yes, a normal competition pool would be nice and lovely; but perhaps a recreational pool would be nice for the younger kids and the elderly who may not want to go at such a fast pace in the competitive pool. The recreational pool is also warmer so the younger kids and the babies would be happy. I am sure there could be a bunch of baby classes.
I also love the gym because there was a rec center group in my social studies class, and they were talking about how many people went to a gym currently or how many people, if there was a gym in Winchester, would go to it. And there was a lot. Having a swim pool and a gym combined would just broaden the amount of people who come and visit and use our swimming pool.
Also, I feel like having a swim pool would add a bunch of jobs for teenagers being a lifeguard and such. We have the Country Club, the Swim and Tennis Club, and you could apply for lifeguarding jobs at the YMCA, but wouldn’t it be so convenient to get your lifeguarding certificate and lifeguard at this pool five minutes away from your house? It would be so nice and would open up so many job opportunities for teenagers looking to work during the summer or the winter.
I love how much thought they put into the architectural portion of it, not necessarily the competition pool; but they thought about the parents. They also have a birthday party room; I think it’s adorable. It’s a bunch of kids and they might love swimming; and you usually can’t have a birthday party at a swimming pool, but now, you can.
My old previous swim team was located in Reading at the YMCA, and there were so many Wakefield kids there especially because it was so accessible to them. It was like a five-minute, 10-minute drive for them. And there were so many Stoneham kids there.
So, I feel like having the pool would be beneficial to Winchester and their varsity swim team; but we could also open it to other neighboring towns who may not have a practice pool in the area. I think that would be really beneficial to broadening it and getting it as much use as we can especially because building a swimming pool is expensive.
They’ve (Swim Winchester) put so much thought from like the pool temperature to the diving boards to the recreational pool, and I’ve seen their blueprint. I applaud them every single day for putting in so much work, and they are all volunteers too. It’s not a full-time job, they are just all volunteers who are passionate about swimming. I think they’ve been working hard for like 10 years now. Swimming is such a core aspect of my identity; I think that I should help. I feel inclined and impelled to help them as much as possible: to spread the news or raise awareness or do the project, I think that it is really important for me to do that.
Kaylee Guo will start Winchester High School in September and swim for the high school squad. She was an Age Group champion for the 12-and-under, 50-meter butterfly race, the same year her 50-meter fly time ranked 16th nationally.
