TEN years ago last week, a thousand people turned up to Alexandra Oval on a hot Friday night to fight for an important community asset.<\/p>\n
Ararat Rural City Council had decided to permanently close the town\u2019s outdoor swimming pool because its dilapidated state made it unsafe for use.<\/p>\n
The decision outraged many.<\/p>\n
Petitions began, public meetings were called along with several protests; it became clear the community weren\u2019t going to allow the pool to close without a fight.<\/p>\n
In the lead-up to the 2014 state election, pool campaigner Ambrose Cashin knew how to get politicians involved.<\/p>\n
He got into the ears of then Premier Denis Napthine and Labor Leader Daniel Andres and won assurances that funding would flow.<\/p>\n
The rest is history.<\/p>\n
Today, early morning visitors to the outdoor pool are likely to see 92-year-old Monika Kapp swimming in the far lane, which is now affectionately referred to as Monika\u2019s Lane<\/em>.<\/p>\n A long-time resident of the town, Mrs Kapp heads to the outdoor pool every morning at 7:30, where she swims for half an hour. Mrs Kapp then enjoys breakfast at the nearby caf\u00e9 before taking a stroll around the lake to feed the swans.<\/p>\n Mrs Kapp was 24 years of age when she relocated to Ararat.<\/p>\n \u201cWhen I first came to Ararat, they were digging this hole to put the pool in, and they were digging it with a pick and shovel,\u201d she recalled.<\/p>\n \u201cWhen you\u2019re a young person\u2026the important people of the town are \u2018up\u2019, and those people down here in their shorts and boots, digging the hole, and Ararat impressed me.\u201d<\/p>\n Mrs Kapp described this as a \u201cwonderful community effort.\u201d<\/p>\n Going back ten years, Mrs Kapp was wone of those who fought for the pool.<\/p>\n When asked about the protests that took place ten years ago to save the pool, Mrs Kapp explained that whilst she was in the background, she was fully behind the fight to save it.<\/p>\n \u201cThe protests, the meetings \u2013 I remember them. 1,400 people came to the first meeting, and from this a committee formed,.<\/p>\n These community efforts, ten years on, have paid off. This is due in no small part to the passion of the people of Ararat to save the pool.<\/p>\n \u201cArarat is a town that is passionate about things,\u201d Mrs Kapp observed. \u201cI like the town.\u201d<\/p>\n When asked her thoughts about the outdoor pool today, Mrs Kapp says she loves it.<\/p>\n \u201cIt\u2019s part of my life,\u201d she said. \u201cThe whole set up here now is beautiful. It\u2019s a tourist attraction.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" TEN years ago last week, a thousand people turned up to Alexandra Oval on a hot Friday night to fight for an important community asset. Ararat Rural City Council had decided to permanently close the town\u2019s outdoor swimming pool because its dilapidated state made it unsafe for use. The decision outraged many. Petitions began, public […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":659,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_seopress_robots_primary_cat":"none","_seopress_titles_title":"","_seopress_titles_desc":"","_seopress_robots_index":"","_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"coauthors":[31],"acf":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/theadvocate.net.au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/02\/IMG_6775-1.jpg?fit=1920%2C1280&ssl=1","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[],"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/pdqUu4-aQ","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/theadvocate.net.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/672"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/theadvocate.net.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/theadvocate.net.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/theadvocate.net.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/theadvocate.net.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=672"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/theadvocate.net.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/672\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/theadvocate.net.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/659"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/theadvocate.net.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=672"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/theadvocate.net.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=672"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/theadvocate.net.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=672"},{"taxonomy":"author","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/theadvocate.net.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/coauthors?post=672"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}