VERO BEACH — The community is invited to the official ribbon cutting ceremony of the John C. Girard Community Poolside Pavilion at Leisure Square on Saturday morning April 25, beginning at 9:30 a.m. Leisure Square is located at 3705 16th Street in Vero Beach. The Pavilion is named after and in memory of the father of Tim Girard, the major benefactor of the project.
What began as a way to treat Leisure Square members to a place of solace, or some shade for the summer campers to cool off, has now blossomed into a community project fueled by a hard-working, involved and philanthropic volunteer committee. The Pavilion will soon offer a myriad of reasons for city residents to visit Leisure Square. In fact, the facility currently sees approximately 500 people on an average week utilizing the pool area between Water Aerobic classes, Master Swim classes, campers and Rec Swim teams. Another 500 or more community people use other facilities that may include basketball, volleyball, gymnastics and gymnasium, plus those taking yoga, dance and physical training classes visit weekly. In all cases, that number of more than 1,000 weekly visitors increases during the summer months.
The event will be emceed by Hamp Elliott of The Breeze 93.7 Radio while participants will include city officials and members of the volunteer committee. The public is invited to enjoy the ceremony as well as complimentary refreshments from Natalie’s Orange Juice, Sam’s Club and Einstein Bagels and music by radio sponsors 94.7 Hot Country Radio and The Breeze. Following the ceremony, the pool will be open to free swim until 1 p.m. and the use of the campus may be utilized by the community for sports or exercise.
The day is sponsored by the Committee for the Community Poolside Pavilion at Leisure Square which includes Co-Chairman-Tony Donadio (Donadio & Associates), Co-Chairman-Beverly Paris (Paris Productions), Project Manager – Robert Paugh (Bill Bryant & Associates), Marsha Damerow (Fat Cat Graphics), Suzi Davis (Hoos Architecture), Tony Della Porta (Della Porta Construction), Lincoln Irons (Summit Construction), Sam Jelmby (Helmet House Construction), Chris Long (Roof Authority), Marty Paris (Paris Productions), Robin Pelensky (Surlaterre Landscape Architecture, LLC), Brad Schuh (Summit Construction) and Martina Tannery (Martina’s Photography). Non Profit partners are the Indian River Community Foundation and the Vero Beach Lifeguard Association. Press Journal/TCpalm.com is the newspaper sponsor and ABC Printing is the printing sponsor. The event and Pavilion project is done in cooperation with Jeff Matthews and Rob Slezak (The City of Vero Beach Recreation Department).
For more information, contact Beverly Paris at (772) 234-4412 or Jeff Matthews at (772) 770-6500.