OUR POOL HISTORY
By Mike McGraw, Lodge Historian

After we moved into our present lodge location at 910 Carthage Street, discussions and plans began to build a pool for
members. The original location was to be south of the building on our property where presently we find the Sanford
Housing Authority in 1958/59.

Finances being an issue, it was decided to abort that location and sell that portion of our land back to Dr E.W. Hunter
and secure the land east of the lodge from the City of Sanford in 1959/60. It is there that a slow construction process
began in 1961. But, as with many projects, we ran out of money. That story I will cover at the end of this article.

Moving ahead a little in the future, there is little to no information on any additions or major improvements to the pool for
the next 40 years. That next big change would come in 2002.

In what began in 2001 under ER Norman Brewer and completed in 2002/03 under ER Mark Brown, our existing bath
house was changed into a pool house. Bathrooms were changed out and tiled, in addition to adding our existing concession room. It was this project that added a new pool deck. A completion of the project added all new pool furniture.

Over the next 18 years there would be yearly projects and upkeep to include a new pool deck, new baby pool, additional pool furniture and repainting of the pool several times. Most recent of this year, we had a restructuring of the retainer
wall around the pool and new pumps and electrical wiring installed.

There is a special family, although not an Elks member, that does deserve the shout out right now.

In 2000 we began an outside pool maintenance contract with Harvey Godfrey. From him it was handed down to his son
Josh Godfrey who takes care of us today. His skill, dedication, and understanding of our pool has kept us up and running and is very much appreciated.

Now let’s go back to 1962 and how we overcame our cash shortage.

The Legend of the Elks Pool

The pool was to open Memorial Day 1962 but that didn’t happen. We had unpaid bills for work completed and a shortage for what was required to the tune of $ 40,000.00.

In comes member and PER Bill Cooper who was determined that the Sanford Elks Lodge was going to have an operational pool and he set off on a quest to raise the money.

For the first two weeks in June, he announced to everyone that on June 15th he was going to dive into the new Elks
pool. This generated a lot of laughs, so he proceeded to make wagers that he in fact would be jumping in the pool.

At 5:00 PM on Friday June 15th, the Elks Lodge was full of members looking out on a half-finished and empty hole in the
ground. They witnessed a limousine pull up and Bill Cooper exiting in his swim suit. He walked to the edge and dove
in.

Oh yes, in the bottom of this hole was the Sanford Fire Department holding a round fire net that safely caught Bill as he
plunged in. So, wagers collected, we had the $40K and the pool opened later that summer.

Now folks, in the words of Paul Harvey, “You know the rest of the story.”

The Sanford Elks Lodge # 1679
“Where yesterday’s pool kids are today’s members”

In appreciation to:
Edwin Foushee
Amy Dew
Mark Brown
Scott Pace