It’s that time again for the volunteers of the Ons Bad foundation in Willemstad: the swimming pool is being prepared for a new swimming season. There is scrubbing, DIY and work on the greenery. Volunteers have been keeping the pool running for eleven years, since they took over from the municipality. “We didn’t know anything about swimming pools in the beginning, only that they had water in them.”
“It’s still very green now,” laughs chairman Gijs Piscaer of the Ons Bad foundation. Together with his colleagues, he is busy bringing the swimming pool out of ‘hibernation’. “We’re just like a company,” he says Southwest TV. “We have to make sure it looks neat again, we have to do some shopping and the prices and subscription sales have to be in order.”
Secretly it takes quite a bit of time for the volunteers, but the enthusiastic chairman doesn’t care. “It’s great fun to do this together. We have seven people on the board and about eighty volunteers. We form a close-knit group of people, everyone knows each other.”
In 2015, the volunteers took over the swimming pool from the municipality of Moerdijk. “The costs became too high and the municipality wanted to get rid of the swimming pool. At the time, our children were still of the age that they rode their bikes to the swimming pool. We thought it was important that it could remain that way. Together with a group of parents, we decided to take over the swimming pool from the municipality.”
After eleven years of managing the swimming pool, the volunteers now know how the hares run. “That was different in the beginning.”
For the social aspect, Piscaer thinks it is important that the swimming pool continues to exist. “We see that an incredible number of children and parents enjoy this. In addition, it is also good for swimming skills for both young people and the elderly in Willemstad.”
When should everything be ready?
The volunteers still have some work to do. For example, the tiles in the showers will be replaced and other benches will also be installed. The volunteers carry out most of the work themselves. Otherwise they will solve it with local companies.
The swimming pool will also be made more sustainable this year. “We receive a budget for this from the municipality. The intention is that we use as little gas as possible to heat the swimming pool.”
The swimming pool is scheduled to open on Friday, May 1. “Then everything must be ready. The swimming pools, which are still green, must then turn blue again and the ice creams must be cold again in the freezer.”
