Village Squire, 1975-04, Page 8Building
a community
This swimming pool
is more than just
a hole filled
with water
When the former Clinton air base closed
four years ago there was a great deal of
sadness for many of the men who had worked
and servedat the Base since it was founded in
the early years of the Second World War.
Seeing the once thriving base buildings
vacant and the streets deserted was -a solemn
reminder of the busy town the Base once was.
was.
Private developers have since tried to turn
the old Base back into a town but for many
veterans, the base is a sad sight still. But
while some of the buildings are still empty,
while the windows are broken in others and
some have been torn down, there is a modern
community building here in what is now
called Vanastra.
Over in the village that was once the
residential section of the Base, hundreds of
people now live. They came from all over in
search at first of cheap housing. Some called
them misfits and some gave them worse
names. But misfits or what have you, these
people are molding themselves into a
community. Early this month the crown jewel
of the pride in their new community was
opened with the official opening of the new
covered pool at the Vanastra Recreation
Centre. The little village now has the only
covered pool west of Stratford.
It was the old-fashioned, co-operative,
community -building kind of effort that
acquired the pool for the people of Vanastra.
It began some time ago when they converted
the old Protestant chapel at the Base into a
recreation centre. Now where the Base
personnel met to worship, the sound of
bouncing basketballs resounds. Where the
organ used to play on Sunday evening, the
sound of music for the Saturday night dance
is heard.
Last summer the community got together
and with a good deal of volunteer labour built
.u, outdoor pool with plans to cover it in this
%%inter They got a government grant to pay
6, VILLAGE SQUIRE/APRIL 1975
The Dormer Protestant chapel now 'forms the basis for an expanding recreation centre.
for the labour and ran lotteries and dances
and what have you to raise the money to pay
for the materials needed to close in the pool.
They offered a homecoming to Rene
Brochu, who had served at the air base for
several years and is now the manager of the
recreation centre. He came to the job in
January and freely admits he didn't see
anyway the pool would be open for the April 7
target date. Just a few days before the
opening with the pool already filled with
water and workmen putting the finishing
touches on the project he's still flabbergasted
at the amount of work that's been done in that
time. And he's impressed with the efforts of
this new community that occupies the houses
of the community he used to know.
He mentions the coming plans for the
recreation centre: a sauna area and a day-care
centre. He mentions the curling rink which
recently closed after the winter's operation.
He mentions that soon, he expects, the arena
that used to serve the Base will be open again
on a year-round basis.
These things obviously please Rene
Brochu. What pleases many of the other
people in the surrounding area is simply the
new facilities available to them. Registration
for the swimming and recreation programs
have been so heavy that the classes have had
to be split up. Harold Whitlock, former
Executive Director of the Stratford
YM -YWCA has taken over the job of aquadic
director for the centre. He's had a busy time
the pride and joy of the community of Vanastra is the new 25 -metre indoor swimming pool.