Val Morand first said hello to the Big Hill Leisure Pool when she was eight years old. It was the beginning of a long-term relationship with the facility – and with the people who shared her love of the place – that would continue for more than 20 years.
Last weekend, it was time to say goodbye, and she and the scores of other Cochranites gathered to swim and share their countless memories of the colourful aquatics centre before it closes for good sometime next month.
“I grew up with lessons here,” said Morand, who then became a lifeguard and swim coach through her teens and early 20s. “One of my best memories is as a child, swimming here, (and then) working here … they always made it a really, really fun time.
“The friends you make over (the) years are lifelong.”
Big Hill celebrated the upcoming closure of its 30-year-old facility on Saturday afternoon with a Hawaiian themed pool party. The bash included a cannonball competition, a swim-up lemonade bar, music and more for the capacity crowd.
One of the friends Morand reunited with was Suzanne Gaida, the town of Cochrane’s senior manager of community services – and Morand’s former coach.
Gaida was a longtime fixture at the Big Hill pool before moving on to civic management, and she said one of her favourite things to see is the kids she used to teach now coming to the pool with their own little ones.
“I coached her swimming,” said Gaida, as she canoodled with Morand’s infant son, Ryker. “It becomes a family.”
Gaida said when the 14,000-square-foot Big Hill pool first opened in March 1990, it was a $2-million project that the town of then 6,000 people believed was too big.
But as Cochrane grew, the pool quickly became too small to handle the ballooning population – and plans to construct a new 80,000-square-foot aquatic centre at Spray Lake Sawmills Family Sports Centre were born.
Next month’s opening of the new facility means the end of the Big Hill pool, and Morand said, even if it’s in a different building, she’s thrilled she will be able to continue her swimming journey with her son in Cochrane.
“I think it’s just a step that we’ve all been hoping for and anticipating,” she said. “It’s sad to say goodbye, but it’s exciting to have that new pool.”
Gaida said town officials approved a budget to remove the Big Hill facility, and workers will “recycle what we can, take what we need” as they tear down the town’s first indoor swimming place and officially close the chapter.
The longtime coach said she thought about whether she would want a physical souvenir from the building before it’s demolished … then, she decided against it. “I’ve got the memories.”
