Time for change, new scoreboard and system needed for PRYMCA pool

By Toby Nelson

You’ve all had that feeling. You press the power button on your television and nothing happens. You flip on your computer to the dreaded blue screen of death. You turn your ignition over to start your car and all you hear is a click. No one likes to have things that don’t work properly. It creates feelings of worry, sadness and anxiety.

This is the feeling our Foxcroft Academy swimmers have every time they host a home swim meet at the Piscataquis Regional YMCA. The scoreboard does not work. It won’t even turn on and show numbers. That makes meets at the PRYMCA a lot longer than most because the swimmers rely on people using stop watches and other forms of timing but these are extremely slow and out of date.

Our spectators also don’t know all that is going on. It makes it tough to watch a meet. Our swimmers are put at a competitive disadvantage and that needs to come to an end. Think of watching a basketball game with nothing to tell you how much time is left or what the score is. Not a good feeling, is it?

We value all of our students and all of our programs at Foxcroft Academy. When one of our programs is not meeting standards, we notice and take action. This has nothing to do with the quality of our swimmers or our program. Our home pool is not up to our standards. Our swimming program has had a great amount of success and it’s time to help them the best way we can. We are planning on purchasing a new scoreboard and touch pad timing system so our home meets are just like anywhere else in Maine. It benefits our Foxcroft swim program and it also helps the PRYMCA Waves swim team. These young swimmers may be Ponies some day so it just makes sense.

You can help. Scoreboards and timing systems are expensive. We ask for your help. You can help these student athletes and help your local YMCA at the same time. Several different sponsorship levels are available. We want to have the system ready for the start of the swim season in late November.

Please contact our Director of Giving Kristin Hersey at 564-≠8351 or kristin.hersey@‚Äãfoxcroftacademy.org for more information or to make a pledge. No‚Äã dollar total is too small.

Toby Nelson is director of communications and marketing at Foxcroft Academy.