RA Moving Away From Red Cross Lessons

which has for years offered a swim lesson curriculum and certification from the American Red Cross, will likely move away from the organization due to rising costs.

RA Aquatics Manager Laura Kowalski told board members at a meeting earlier this week that because the Red Cross has had to raise more money for recent disaster relief, the costs for RA to continue to offer the Red Cross' program will cost the association an additional $15,000 annually.

"We love Red Cross," Kowalski said. Unfortunately, the fees are adding $15,000 to what we already pay, and that is hard to swallow."

RA is working with other recreation departments, such as Herndon, Fairfax County and Leesburg - which are also facing the same rising Red Cross bill - to develop its own consortium of swim instructors.

"We are hoping to get state and national support," Kowalski said. "We will look into what we need to do do keep a quality, low-cost swim program. Our instructors will all be certified and will most likely be Red Cross certified this summer while we are exploring our options."

In other swim news from the 2011 Summer Pool Trend Analysis:

* RA does not have a firm date on when renovations to Dogwood Pool will begin, but hopes to have it open by Memorial Day.

* Group swim lessons served 798 participants in 2011 and 316 people used private swim instruction. Five hundred fifty four took part in water aerobics, and RA is planning to expand water exercise offerings in 2012.

* There was a total of 178,911 pool visits in 2011, which was slightly down from 182,110 visitors in 2010 (does not include $5 guest pass visits). had the most, 21,415 visitors. had the least, 3,967. For a complete chart of pool visits broken down by pool and by year, see the PDF attached with this story.

* The lifeguards succesfully used a mobile application so they could check their schedules online. At the meeting, an RA board member suggested this would be a valuable tool for residents to check pool schedules on their phones.