A group of swimmers spanning more than 20 years in age gathered at the Wiscasset Community Center on Wednesday, July 26 to surprise Lori LaPointe, the woman who helped them develop their skills.
They were competing in a special swim meet of the Unsinkables, the center’s USA swim team, on the aquatics director’s last day of work. Aquatics specialist and incoming Aquatics Director Nori Lund, who organized the surprise, said she tracked down as many of the program’s 358 alumni as possible, hunting across social media to reconnect with swimmers now living as far away as Arizona.
It took some convincing to get LaPointe, who coached all ages since the center’s pool opened in 1998, to stay until what she thought was a normal meet began in late afternoon. The work paid off, however, and the swimmers ended the surprise competition with hugs and chants of a cheer that she wrote.
“It brought tears to my eyes,” she said. “It was so heartwarming.”
LaPointe has spent her life swimming and teaching others how, a job she said she has loved for its benefits at all ages, the opportunity to watch others’ abilities grow, and the chance to teach life skills that can be used anywhere.
“That’s why I’ve been in this for the 35 years that I’ve been in it,” she said. “When you teach somebody to swim, it’s a life skill that they can go and do so many other things with in life.”
LaPointe grew up in Bangor, where her backyard was the town pool.
“I lived at the pool, literally,” she said. “I took all the swimming lessons.”
She became a junior lifeguard at age 12 and a full lifeguard at 15. A summer job in college working at Job Corps led her back to lifeguarding and to a water safety instructor certification. LaPointe stayed on there as a recreational specialist for three summers, and joined full time as a lifeguard and aquatic specialist after college.
She moved south after marrying her husband, Rick, and they settled in Topsham for his work. LaPointe took a job as the aquatics director of the Merrymeeting Health and Fitness Center, now Maine Pines, and stayed for 12 years.
After taking time off to raise her two daughters, LaPointe got a call from Wayne Applebee, the center’s first pool director, before it opened in 1998.
Applebee, a former police officer, was looking for her advice because he did not know how to swim yet, according to LaPointe. She went home and told her husband, “I feel like I really need to go and help him.”
LaPointe spent a year designing programs and advising Applebee while working on her lifeguard instructor certification so she could teach.
In the following years, she taught children as young as 6 months, a preschool “splash class” for 3- to 6-year-olds, and American Red Cross swimming lessons, all the way up to adult swimming lessons and senior water aerobics.
She was at the pool every day of the week, except Sundays, unless the Unsinkables swim team had a meet.
LaPointe kept an eye on her swim team students to find those who could move into the lifeguard program. About a decade ago, she began a lifeguard challenge camp for 11- to 14-year-olds, introducing lifeguard skills before swimmers turn 15 and are eligible to work.
She worked to grow the reserves this way because scheduling can be a challenge, as high school students are limited in the hours they can work and often depart after acceptance to the colleges she helped prepare them for.
It also requires certain skills, LaPointe said, to blow the whistle without escalating situations.
“We call it enforcing rules, but it’s really just educating people of risky behavior in a water environment,” she said.
When her children were young, her pediatrician asked if she had been a lifeguard because he noticed how naturally she prevented risks.
“I’m wired to see rules and regulations and why we have them,” she said. “We are there to guide people and help them make decisions that are going to keep their experience in a water environment in a positive rather than a negative way.”
In all facets of the work, she has learned to work with people.
“I think it’s important that you are a very good listener and understand people’s needs. Sometimes they don’t necessarily say what they are really in need of, so it’s kind of figuring out what they’re really trying to get to,’” she said.
Outside the water, the first aid and CPR skills she taught recently helped former student Sam Richards save his father’s life, leading to an American Red Cross Certificate of Merit earlier this year.
Though there are risks in the water, LaPointe said she finds it physically comforting.
She appreciates seeing the benefits of water for people in different stages of life, from babies enjoying a swim to people with joint replacements finding physical therapy easier to do in the pool.
“I just think that it puts everybody as an equal when they swim. There are certainly people that swim fast and aren’t equal to others when it comes to competitive swimming, but water is a neutralizer,” she said. “Once you’re in the water, nobody’s looking at you, and nobody sees you. You’re swimming.”
She expects to miss the people of the center, whom she has shared her work with, the most.
“It really is an extension of your family,” she said. “It’s a work family.”
LaPointe will also miss the fitness and dedication required, but has big plans for her retirement, including an Ironman triathlon and a through hike of the Appalachian Trail.
She is now a grandmother, and said she wants to be available for her two young grandsons. When her husband retires in a few years, they hope to see the country.
Lund, who started as a swimmer in the center’s first season, will take on LaPointe’s role. She began working there at age 15 and has been remained ever since.
“It’s just one place I never leave,” she said.
Lund said the transition has been going well, though the center is short staffed. She hopes to keep program offerings on the same course they developed.
“She is my right hand at all times,” LaPointe said of Lund. “If I have things slipping, she always picks up the pieces. She’s been so supportive.”
After the final meet on Wednesday, the group gathered to share dinner and look through scrapbooks from the team’s 25-year history.
Nathan Gilliam, Andrew Nery, and Sam Richards, who all grew up swimming at the center and are now college students, were eager to share their appreciation for LaPointe.
“She’s the perfect combination of tough and tender,” Richards said. He described her laughing with the team one minute and running a challenging practice the next.
The students recalled LaPointe beating the metal pool rail with a socket wrench — “just whaling on it,” Richards said — to get their attention underwater during practices.
“She’s the perfect coach to have in your corner,” Gilliam said.
LaPointe’s approach prepared the trio for college swimming without them realizing it by requiring every member to record a time for each race at least once a season, while still allowing them to compete in the races they preferred.
Richards remembered her walking the length of the pool next to him and whistling throughout a race to help him with a challenging stroke. Gilliam recalled her arguing his case to a referee. All three remembered how she would cheer for them at every meet.
“Underwater, you can’t hear anything. But you can hear Lori,” Nery said to laughs from the group.
“I’m glad you guys are still swimming,” she said after the meet to former Unsinkables now swimming in college. “That’s my mission.”
