Attendence up as season closes at Alameda Waterpark
BUTLER TWP — Malachi Duffy, 2, was terrified of being on his own in the pool, even though he would always be equipped with a trusty life vest.
“We would put his vest on and he would be like, ‘Don’t let me go, don’t let me go,’” said his grandmother, Terry Duffy.
The Duffys bought their passes at the beginning of the summer and went to Alameda Waterpark almost every weekend, Duffy said. By Sunday, the final day of the water park’s season, Malachi was confident enough to wade around in the shallow end on his own.
“Now he just goes in without his vest,” said Duffy, who keeps an eye on her grandson while swimming with a vest.
Lance Welliver, director of Butler County Parks and Recreation, said Alameda Waterpark was a lot more popular this summer compared to last year. Welliver said he won’t have concrete attendance numbers for this summer for a while, but a lot more people bought pool passes, day passes and came to the pool in general to beat the heat.
Welliver also said the parks and recreation department had a few more events at the pool this year than last year, and being open seven days a week also bumped attendance.
“Last year, we weren’t open Monday or Tuesday, but this year we were open all week,” Welliver said Sunday. “People just wanted to get out there this year.”
The water park closed to the public for the season at 5 p.m. Sunday, but it has a final event scheduled Sept. 11 — the Dog Paddle Pool Pawty, a one-day event where people can bring their dogs along to swim.
The lifeguards working at the pool also agreed that the season was good. Gideon Goettler, a lifeguard from Butler, said they only had to do triple whistles, indicating that a swimmer needed to be helped, “maybe once a month.”
Goettler, who will be a senior at Butler Area Senior High School this year, said it was his first summer working at the pool but likely not his last.
“The lifeguard staff are all great, we all listen to each other and communicate,” Goettler said. “Team-building is a skill that’s good to have in any job — that’s something I took away from all this.”
Frank Masi, program manager at Alameda Park, said the pool had a lot of employees new to lifeguarding this year. Despite the fresh-faced staff, Goettler said he and the rest of the lifeguards were all well-equipped to perform their duties in case of an emergency.
“Every lifeguard here is fit enough to save someone’s life,” said Goettler, who added that he has been swimming competitively for years.
Grace Persichini, 15, said the water park was her first job as well. She said many people took the initial lifeguard test at the beginning of the summer, but not everyone had the ability necessary for the job.
As a diver at Butler High School, Persichini found her summer experience rewarding.
“It was a great first job,” Persichini said. “You have to be able to trust each other and be trustworthy (yourself) to be able to save people.”
Goettler, Persichini and fellow first-year lifeguard Maura Gilliland all said they would like to work at the pool again next summer, seeing that it worked out so well.
"I liked the people the most,“ Persichini said. ”We all had a great summer.“
