The Swim Center got it's unofficial start in 1995. Here's how it happened: I (Jennifer Hill) started teaching swimming lessons for Clayton County Parks & Recreation in 1993. The summer of 1995, they were planning to add more instructors and thus cut my hours. So, that summer, I asked a handful of parents if they would be interested in doing lessons in my dad's backyard. I offered them comparable prices, but only 8 kids in a class as compared to the 15+ the county was enrolling in classes. I also changed the time frame from 2 weeks per class down to 1 week. The reason for this was because I noticed that after 1 week, some students were ready to move on to the next level and others still needed another week or more on that level to master those skills. Being a 1 week class would allow students the flexibility to move up when ready and not be held back another week just because the class lasted another week. So that summer I taught in the mornings for Clayton County and in the evenings at my dad's house. I was about to be a junior in college at that point.

What started with one instructor and about 20 families in 1995 grew over time. With no advertising, I relied on parental word of mouth. I found that parents would be talking to other parents at birthday parties, athletic events, dance class, etc. And that helped the program grow. It also helped keep expenses low with no advertising costs.

We were very low-tech at that point too. I would keep a notebook poolside that had the weeks and schedules listed out on it. Parents would write their names in and leave a check in the box.

My parents were very accomodating allowing swimmers to come dripping wet into their house to go upstairs to use the bathroom. Their neighbors were also very gracious in tolerating the cars that would line up and down their street. Many times I got complaints about driveways or mailboxes being blocked, but overall they were patient.

In 2003, I coached the Forest Park High School swim team. Some of the swimmers, Tack, Holly Macaranas and Mary Macaranas were trying to convince me that they should come help me over the summer. Being a one-woman-show, I said, "help me... how can you help me". They kept on and kept on, so eventually I said they could come, but I didn't budget in to pay them. I figured they would get in my way more than anything, but thought I'd give it a try. After the first couple of weeks I noticed what a big help they were and realized that I could actually train other people how to teach. We then put out donation baskets for parents to contribute and they were collecting about $60 a week to split. Some of those kids would "hang out" with me 9 hours a day and claim to love it! They were definitely dedicated.

That same year, my husband and I purchased 20 acres where we were planning to build a house. Now, I was focused on growing my program. Teaching at my parent's house was nice, but I had to end by 5:00 and couldn't do any lessons on weekends. Now that I knew I could potentially clone myself in other instructors, I knew I could build a pool where 2 lessons could be occuring simultaneously.

It wasn't until 2006 when the pool was complete. At that point, my Forest Park swimmers were proficient in the teaching methods I used and we made a smooth transition to the new pool. It was very difficult for me to let someone else teach lessons, but I knew the only way I could grow to reach more people was to train and trust. From there I continued adding on about 2 new instructors each year.

In 2009, I decided to build an instructor training program by adding assistants on to the classes. Prior to this point, all classes were on a 1:8 ratio. To offset the cost of the assistants, we kept the class size for Level 1 at 8, but increased Level 2 and up classes to 10. The level 1's really needed the assistant to help with class management. The assistants job on those classes is simply behavior and discipline. In the upper level classes, having 10 kids and 1 instructor and 1 assistant really allowed the kids to get more practice time in and added to their skills because they were now able to swim 2 at a time rather than singles.

In 2010, we implemented a new computer system. It was our first time being able to track the actual # of swimmers that we had. I estimated that we taught about 400 kids a summer; imagine my surprise that summer wehn we hit the 1000th swimmer! We celebrated by giving her a party for her friends. We finished that summer with close to 1200 swimmers.

In 2011, we signed an agreement with Barrington Academy to use their pool. This was a great relief to help our evening working parents. Teaching lessons from 9am - 8pm and having a tremendous amount of working parents, we found that our evening classes would fill up really fast. Being able to add Barrington gave us another location to hold evening classes and share that load. I hate when we have to turn someone away from lessons because we are too full. I am hoping to add more satellite locations in 2012 to reach more swimmers in different parts of our county.

January of 2012 we embarked on a new journey- indoor swimming lessons. While this presented a new set of challenges, we are working through them and expanding the program. Hopefully more indoor locations will be added soon!

I am very proud of the staff that I have assembled. These are remarkable men and women who are dedicated and have a passion for swimming. It has been a long journey, but we are not done yet. Many changes will come in the future and we will take on each challenge. We also couldn't do it with out the support of all the wonderful parents and swimmers that come to see us year after year.

Our goal is to teach as many people as possible to have a love for the water and a safe time while swimming. The more we teach; the more lives we feel like we have saved!