Mpls Swims Fund for Phillips Pool

This spring, Minneapolis will break ground for its first-ever public indoor swimming pool! Minneapolis Swims has worked hard to bring together funding partners to open this 10-lane facility in the heart of Phillips, one of the most centrally located, densely populated and impoverished neighborhoods in the city.

 Thousands of children and adults will learn the life-saving skill of swimming in the four-lane, 25-yard, zero-entry warm water training pool. This accessible pool will also serve an elder or disabled population as a therapy pool. At other times, it can be closed off for gender-specific swimming.

 The six-lane, 25-yard, competition pool, with spectator seating and one-meter diving, will allow new swimmers to develop their skills further and offer club competition for kids looking to challenge themselves. This pool will also provide a home for three Minneapolis public high schools that swim together as a team and currently don't have a pool to call home.

 We have worked on this project for four years, and it is only because of a collective effort from many individuals, businesses, neighborhoods, elected officials, and business leaders that we are finally able to break ground this spring. The importance of this facility is evident in all the sources of funding that has come together to make it a reality: the State of Minnesota, Hennepin County, Minneapolis Public Schools, Minneapolis Parks and Recreation Board, Shakopee Mdewakantonwan Sioux Community, and generous foundations, corporations and individual donors like you.

 But we are not quite done. We've raised the funds to get the pools in place, but we still have to furnish them so that we can open by the summer of 2017. We still need money for the diving board, lane lines, starting blocks, touch pads, railings and more.

 Please help us finish the pool!