College student reinvents swim day
STILLWATER — Jill Tracey couldn't get a memory out of her head. The junior chemistry major at Ramapo College fondly remembered Swim Day at Paulins Kill Lake in her hometown of Stillwater. "I remembered all of the beach and water games at the lake they had every year. It's one of my best early memories," she said. When Tracey was 10, they stopped having Swim Day.
Tracey went on to graduate from Kittatinny and return home from college to work summers as a lifeguard and swim instructor at the same lake. This year, she was named head guard, so she was in charge of all of the other lifeguards at the lake's two swimming beaches and of the beach activities. Mid-summer, area residents received a pleasantly surprising e-mail from Tracey indicating that she wanted to bring back Swim Day.
This past Saturday, with the help of her brother, Eric, who is also a guard at the beach and who will be a freshman at William Patterson College next month, Jill Tracey reincarnated Swim Day. "Some things are timeless," said Robyn Waldo as she enjoyed watching her daughter prepare for the sand castle competition, "This is good old-fashioned fun and what makes our area so great."
Tracey coordinated a huge array of both beach and water competitions for the children dividing them into different age groups and awarding ribbons for top three in each event. From a beach long jump to a diving competition out by the docks to a fun-filled Keep-the-Newspaper-Dry-While-You-Swim-To-The-Rope, Tracey included games she remembered plus some new additions.
One of the most popular events was the egg toss, and the younger children squealed with delight as they worked as a team to remove a big greased watermelon from the water and try to get it up to the lifeguard stand.
Tracey is majoring in chemistry and plans to attend grad school to earn her Masters, then pursue a career in chemistry.