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Inspired by Randy and Karen Wilburnâ€™s $30,000 match, long-time Lopezian Rita Oâ€™Boyle is also jumping in to add to the year-end challenge! Donate to FLIP now until December 31, 2021, and Rita will match donations, dollar to dollar, up to $25,000, keeping the pool on its path to construction in 2022!

FLIP recently spoke with Rita about her passion for swimming and the community sheâ€™s experienced as a result.

Whatâ€™s your reason for supporting the Swim Center?
Iâ€™m a long-time Lopezian and long-time user of pools. Iâ€™ve spent my life swimming. I swam through [primary and secondary] school and through college, competitively.

Now, Iâ€™ve had one knee and two hips replaced; I feel like having a place to immerse myself in nice, warm water would be an answer to all my physical ails.

How do you see the Swim Center fostering our communityâ€™s development?
It will bring people together. For the aging community, especially, I feel like itâ€™s a gift for the body and the mind.

How has swimming impacted your life?
The water is a wonderful gift. Itâ€™s been something to look forward to and a way to feel at one with the world.

My familyâ€™s swimming history is deep. I have two daughters and a granddaughter who all swam competitively all the way through high school. My father, Eric Cross, was a swimmer and almost made it to the Olympics, save for an injury. He made it possible and encouraged me and my four siblings to swim.

I grew up near Port Sunlight, England, an amazing township built by the Lever Brothers; they built the town to accommodate their soap-factory workers. It had a pool that I could cycle to, and there was never a question asked as to why I was late coming home! The best part [of belonging to a swim team in my youth] was having a comfortable set of people to travel and go to meets with. Even though the sport was competitive, it was based on â€œdo your best,â€ and everyone got along.

The local swim club had a menâ€™s division and a womenâ€™s division. My fatherâ€™s mother was on the ladiesâ€™ team - so I understood early on that swimming can be a real confidence builder. For my father, who was an engineer and often single-minded, swimming was his passion. If there was a swimmable sea, he would swim in it. He was recognized both locally and nationally. People would say, â€œThere goes Eric Cross.â€

What is your favorite swimming story?
In my 50s, I belonged to the Seattle Athletic Club. I used to play squash there but was attracted to swimming. One day, the pool pro suggested I join the swim club. I told him, â€œI could never do that!â€ But he urged me on anyway, so I finally relented. We would swim a mile or so every time we got together. My favorite chuckle was when a younger person was ticked off that I could swim faster than she could.

That experience reinforced the idea that whatever I put my mind to, I could do: â€œIf you get in the water, you can stay in the water.â€

Supporters can give online at www.lopezislandpool.org/donate.

The FLIP Board is so appreciative to Rita for her inspired match and to Randy and Karen for jump-starting this year-end campaign. Thanks to all FLIP donors for their steadfast support of this critically important project!

Long-time Lopezian and swimmer Rita O'Boyle, pictured as a youth with her swimming trophies.

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