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<p>FORTY FORT &#8212; An unlikely group of residents took it upon themselves to help save the community pool after it closed due to a leak.</p><p>Aaron Girvan, 10, said he and friend Natalie Wilson, also 10, were devastated when the borough&#8217;s pool closed for the summer, just three days after its opening on Memorial Day weekend.</p><p>&#8220;Every year, every time it&#8217;s hot we always go there to cool off and this year we couldn&#8217;t,&#8221; Aaron said. &#8220;It&#8217;s pretty much around the corner for me and Natalie, so we can just walk there.&#8221;</p><p>&#8220;Other summers, we get the membership and go almost every day. A lot of the families do,&#8221; said Aaron&#8217;s mom, Lori Girvan.</p><p>The pool, over 80 years old, closed as the result of a major leak, said council&#8217;s chairwoman of recreation, Amy Craig.</p><p>Aaron and Natalie got some friends together, including Lola Wojciechowski, 10, Lily Shymanski, 10, Maggie Wilson, 8, and Jack Wilson, 10, and came up with a plan to save the beloved site &#8212; a lemonade and bake sale.</p><p>&#8220;They started planning it when they were still in school, right after the pool closed,&#8221; said Girvan. &#8220;They kind of just came home from school and informed all their parents: &#8216;Here&#8217;s what we&#8217;re doing!&#8217;&#8221;</p><p>With help from their parents, the children were able to get everything they needed to conduct a sale at Forty Fort&#8217;s first Movie in the Park event June 16. They raised $170.</p><p>&#8220;They got very excited about it and wanted to do it again,&#8221; said Girvan.</p><p>They held another sale at the July Movie in the Park, earning $208 that time. The final sale, which took place Tuesday at Forty Fort&#8217;s National Night Out, netted $214.</p><p>Girvan said the sales were advertised on Facebook, and some passersby were giving them extra money, or dropping money into their can without taking any lemonade.</p><p>&#8220;It feels good. I hope we raise enough money to get the pool open again,&#8221; Aaron said.</p><p>The youngsters plan to present the funds to council later this month.</p><p>&#8220;It was so nice to see all the kids and all the people that came out, and I think that it was good for us as council to be able to hear that story,&#8221; Craig said.</p><p>&#8220;It&#8217;s inspiring to hear how many people enjoy the pool and want the pool to come back &#8230; it&#8217;s hard sometimes to decide what is most important because some of the people and residents in town aren&#8217;t using the pool.&#8221;</p><p><strong>$77K liner</strong></p><p>Craig said council has been exploring different options to ensure the pool is open next summer.</p><p>&#8220;At this point, we have a grant for $200,000 which is not even close to what we are going to need to redo the entire pool,&#8221; Craig said.</p><p>Council is looking into purchasing a liner, which she said would cost about $77,000 and last 20 to 30 years. On top of that would be work on the pool&#8217;s water lines, filters, skimmers and things of that nature. After the basics are taken care of, the remaining funds would be used for more renovations.</p><p>Aesthetically, Craig said the pool is in better shape than it has been in a while, since the city&#8217;s Department of Public Works refurbished it during the off-season.</p><p>&#8220;We really thought we were in good shape for this year &#8230; our DPW had done a lot of work, power-washing and repainting everything. It looks fantastic from the outside.&#8221;</p><p>Once they filled it, though, the leak was discovered. &#8220;We needed to make some tough decisions pretty quickly,&#8221; she explained.</p><p>&#8220;A lot of the community has come together to do some fundraising and things to try to offset some costs, which is only going to help us be able to get more accomplished right now to open next year.&#8221;</p><p>Craig started a GoFundMe page in July 2015 to help with maintenance, and the site has raised approximately $5,600 since then.</p><style>
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<div class="neCaption">Lily Shymanski, Natalie Wilson and Aaron Girvan, all 10, of Forty Fort, have held three lemonade and bake sales to raise money to help fix the Forty Fort pool. The group has collected nearly $600. The children will deliver the money to borough council Aug. 21. </div></div><div class="metaInfo"><photo0>https://www.timesleader.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/08/web1_TTL08XX17pool1.jpg</photo0><caption0>Lily Shymanski, Natalie Wilson and Aaron Girvan, all 10, of Forty Fort, have held three lemonade and bake sales to raise money to help fix the Forty Fort pool. The group has collected nearly $600. The children will deliver the money to borough council Aug. 21. </caption0><photoCredit0>Aimee Dilger | Times Leader </photoCredit0></div></div>
<div class="metaInfo"><bylineMeta><p>Toni Pennello</p><p>tpennello@www.timesleader.com</p></bylineMeta></div><div class="metaInfo"><shirttailMeta><p>Reach Toni Pennello at 570-991-6121 or on Twitter @TLNews.</p></shirttailMeta></div>

With some help from lemonade, Forty Fort youngsters trying to save pool