Grants awarded by Wildhorse Foundation and Pendleton Foundation Trust
Pendleton Parks and Recreation has received two grants totaling more than $30,300 to launch the Pendleton Water Safety Campaign, an educational program designed to save lives, increase awareness of water safety and prevent drowning and other water accidents.
“Pendleton Foundation Trust and the Wildhorse Foundation have a long history of supporting Pendleton Parks and Recreation projects. We are extremely grateful for their continued support, and partnership,” said Liam Hughes, Pendleton Parks and Recreation Director. “This is exciting, I really think this gives us a chance to do something that could literally save lives.”
The program launch will happen thanks to grant funding from two local organizations. In its most recent grant cycle, the Wildhorse Foundation awarded Pendleton Parks and Recreation $20,800, and The Pendleton Foundation Trust awarded the city $9,538 toward the project. Combined, the two grants total more than $30,338.
The grant funding will pay for new lifeguarding equipment and non-slip matting at the Pendleton Family Aquatic Center. This funding will also be used to film a new water safety campaign and promote the campaign to the community. One major element the campaign will focus on is swim lessons until the swimmer has reached a minimum level of competency.
“Water safety is something that seems to have become overlooked by our community, I think this is partially due to the fantastic job our lifeguards do at keeping people safe. However, there have been days where lifeguards have to enter the water up to a dozen times to assist swimmers who are struggling,” Hughes said. “The vast majority of these are children who can’t swim proficiently and have gotten out of their depth without parental supervision; therefore, our water safety campaign will focus on both of those areas. Firstly, we hope to get more kids to complete our swimming lesson programs. We have noticed a surprising number of people who only enroll their kids in the first one or two levels of swimming lessons, and stop attending long before their kids are strong swimmers. Second, we hope to educate parents on the importance of watching their children until they are strong swimmers. For our pool the minimum requirement to be able to use the dive pool or 50m pool is to be able to confidently swim 25m. However, by the time a child is 10 or 11 years old, they should really be able to swim 100m with no issues if they have been taking lessons and practicing with their parents.”
For the 2025 season, swim lesson registration opens at 6 p.m. May 28. Contact Pendleton Parks and Recreation at 541-966-0228 for more information.
- May 15, 2025