Ginny Weeber grew up swimming. Her family lived near a lake in New Jersey and they did a lot of swimming and playing in the water. Her husband Bob was also drawn to the water. He lifeguarded and taught swim lessons in high school and college, and even learned to SCUBA dive. They lived in a little townhouse opposite where Cascade Swim Center is now and watched it being built in 1980. They were thrilled with the new facility, but had no idea how it would become the center of their lives for years to come.
Like their parents, the Weeber’s two kids learned to swim from early childhood. Ginny took both kids to waterbabies and then started them in swimming lessons. “Matt breezed through them,” she recalls, “but Mandy would see us and scream when they asked her to float on her back, so they finally asked us to leave the pool during her lessons.” Despite this inauspicious start, both kids flourished on swim team. When considering all that Cascade Aquatic Club (CAC, now RACE) brought into her family’s lives, Ginny takes a walk down memory lane, pulling out old photo albums from the 1980s.
Ginny with Waterbaby Matt
As a young mom, she remembers, “Going to the pool got me into visiting with other families, and when the kids were on swim team, those families hung out together all the time. We’ve made some lifelong friends from having the kids all together on swim team.” Bob got very involved, officiating swim meets for nearly a decade. It was a big time commitment, but in a way, CAC kids were all raised collectively as practically siblings, by a network of parents who could tag in and out to help get this gaggle of swimmers over the pass or to far flung campgrounds. “If you couldn’t get away that weekend, you’d send your kid with somebody else to a meet. Swim parents are famous for taking on 3 or 4 kids that aren’t their own. Then, the next time you might have to take on 3 or 4 kids that aren’t your own,” Ginny explains. “Potlucks and campouts, that was our life. It was wonderful.”
Reflecting on what swim team brought to her kids’ lives, Ginny observes, “It taught them how to set goals, how to be organized. You had to take responsibility, like getting yourself to practices. They learned a lot of important life lessons from that.” She notes that her youngest went through the amazing and sometimes frustrating experience of being on the first Redmond water polo team. At first, the high school didn’t think they could support a new sport, so RAPRD stepped up, donating pool time after hours for the kids to practice, and hosting weekend tournaments and clinics so they could learn from other clubs and grow the sport in Central Oregon. The RAPRD lifeguard supervisor volunteered as the men’s and women’s coach. Within a few years, the popularity of the rough and tumble sport had exploded. “Park and Rec supported it from the very beginning,” Ginny remembers, and the kids learned not only a new sport, but also how to persevere and advocate for themselves.
The Weeber kids consult before Mandy's race.
After her kids graduated from high school, the pool faded from their lives for many years but Ginny recently decided to make RAPRD a central focus again. “I really love dancing and Bob and I started taking salsa lessons for a Chamber of Commerce event back in 2009. After the event was over and I was like ‘Oh, so-and-so is playing in Bend, let’s go dancing!’ and he looked at me like I had two heads. I knew if I wanted to keep dancing, I was going to have to find a way to do it myself.” Ginny explains, “Back in 2009, Zumba wasn’t popular yet, hardly anybody was certified, I was one of the first handful.” RAPRD again became the background for a new chapter in Ginny’s life. “The Activity Center really took a chance on me to teach a new Zumba Gold class in 2010,” she recalls, “the first Gold class in Central Oregon. I have absolutely loved working there. Julane and Mike [her Activity Center supervisors] have always had my back and have always been very supportive of the Zumba program, even from before it was popular.”
Early Zumba class at Jackson St. Activity Center
Ginny has always taught Zumba Gold, a lower-impact version of the popular workout that mixes Latin and reggaeton dance steps. “Zumba gives you new routines, but they also give you options, like you can use this step or that step, or you can introduce your own steps. I do a lot of adaptations for Zumba Gold. No jumping, low-impact movements; some people get dizzy turning, so they don’t do as much of that.” Instructors offer adaptations for bad hips, bad knees, and other limitations, to make the class challenging for everyone, but not intimidating. “It is really hard when you’ve got a full class of people and some are really fit and want to do something more intense and others have never exercised before. Veteran participants are really good about bringing new people in and mentoring, like ‘Yeah, don’t worry about it, you’ll get it.’”
That emphasis on fun and personal fulfillment without judgment is something she has always liked about RAPRD. “It has never been about who has the sexiest top or slinkiest bottoms, we just have fun and help each other out. I liked Park and Rec because there’s not all this branding and competition. The fun and the dancing are what drew me to it.”
Zumba Halloween!
She hopes to continue to expand her Zumba horizons after she retires this year. “Zumba is kind of a cross between an art and a science. Each teacher has their own style or flare or area of expertise. It’s so nice because as a Zumba community we share a lot.” As participation has boomed in the past few years, teachers have had less time to collaborate and Ginny looks forward to getting back to learning from other instructors as a participant.
She is also getting involved in philanthropic work within the Central Oregon Parkinson’s community. “Mom passed away from complications from Parkinson’s Disease two years ago and I felt like I should have been more aware of how Parkinson’s affects people.” She has been attending meetings of the Central Oregon Parkinson’s Council and Dance for PD in Bend, and is co-founding a support group in Redmond. She is coordinating a fundraiser and Zumba demo for Dance for PD in April, which teaches dance to people with Parkinson’s.
Looking back on the role of RAPRD in her life, Ginny has the broad view of having been a patron throughout the years. “The pool is a community resource that has been here since 1980. The Activity Center offers classes at an affordable price that people can try without a huge membership commitment and the classes are staffed by professional, trained people. It’s an incredible bargain for people in Redmond. A place to grow and learn. You don’t have to be rich to enjoy something that other people take for granted because it’s all accessible to the public.”
Looking to the future, she observes, “A lot of Baby Boomers are getting older. Transportation and getting out gets harder.” Ginny believes that, to combat isolation and improve the fitness of Redmond’s increasing senior population, RAPRD will become even more important to the community. If the fitness and wellness programming of the pool and the Activity Center could be brought under one roof, she says, “I think we’d be more likely to go and take advantage of all of the programs. A new facility would be amazing. You could bring in experts to train students and teachers how to teach classes, to share training and expertise. We could offer more senior classes like low-impact exercise and pickleball.” If fitness classes were co-located with the pool, “I might try aqua aerobics again,” she considers, “Liquid Combat sounds intriguing.”
