December 18, 2024
communityrelations@gritman.org
Attn: Connie Osborn, Jenni Dalton, and Kara Besst
Subject: Jeff and Jenni Martin Wellness Center therapy pool and spa
SWIMMING FOR LIFE
We were planning our departure from Portland. “Can we leave at 5:30?” I asked.
“5:30?” He did not look up from his book. “In the morning?”
If this request had involved something as ordinary as “beating the traffic,” or “getting home in time for the mail,” his answer would have been something like, “You’ve got to be kidding.” Or “No Way.”
Instead, a thoughtful, “Sure,” and by 3:00 the following afternoon, we were back in Moscow in time for me to return to my water exercise when the therapy pool opened.
Not only those who exercise, but the families of those who use the pool for aquatic therapy, realize how important this therapy is to all who participate, important enough to plan a vacation trip around access to the pool.
Anyone who has witnessed how much patrons depend on the Martin Wellness Center for their health, their ability to function independently, their dedication to a regular commitment to recovery from surgeries or unhealthy weight, or from disease-related functional impairment, or from the unkindnesses of aging, understands. Anyone who has witnessed the development of and commitment to aquatic therapy for both mental and physical health, understands.
Martin Wellness Center has provided this service to hundreds of Latah County residents since 2008, and anyone who has researched must recognize, as we have discovered, there is no facility in the area with the same capacity to provide the community with a place to pursue the same kind of wellness strategies, providing even such specific a component as a 7′ deep section of the pool, a rare and important provision for many of the patrons. I emphasize “wellness.”
Would anyone in the health profession dispute the wisdom of the aphorism, “An ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure”? Was not that the primary motivation of those who worked so hard to rescue the current facility from the inability of the county to financially maintain such a facility?
From the moment I moved to Moscow I was seeking such a facility. In the aftermath of back surgery, oncoming arthritis, and an ever-aggressive fibromyalgia, I discovered the Latah County pool and visited it regularly, as many as five times a week (six when they were open on Saturday). Later, when diagnosed with another condition, the pool became, for me, a necessity. Every health provider that I have consulted on the best way to stave off the effects of these inconsiderate conditions has recommended, “Swim.”
I had been using the county pool for several years when long-time Moscow residents and fellow patrons originated and pursued the idea of encouraging Latah County citizens to vote to save the property for county citizens by selling it to the interested buyer, Gritman, for $1 rather than potentially surrender it to developers. In the following election, county residents voted to do just that, with the understanding that Gritman would maintain and progressively repair and upgrade the facility as necessary for the sake of county residents.
With an altruistic vision and focus on the health concerns of those who most need this kind of facility, and with the intention of continuing to provide a non-profit Wellness Center for the health and welfare of the Latah County community, it became the Martin Wellness Community Center. A host of angels donated a great deal of money to help Gritman honor its commitment. I was there as repairs and upgrades to the facility, including the renovations of the pool and the locker rooms, along with the addition of a special upgraded space for “on land” programs evolved, programs such as “Fit and Fall” and special “’Parkinson” classes, new water exercise such as aerobics, prenatal and arthritis classes, and designated times for independent swimming.
My own body not only maintained, but improved. Every physical therapist who treated me, every doctor, including my family doctor and the specialists who watched my efforts to stay ahead of my particular physical problems, repeated time after time at every check-up, “KEEP SWIMMING. STAY IN THAT WATER.” They indicated swimming was my best bet to successfully compete with my health issues. When I tore a rotator cuff, it helped keep me from surgery. When I cracked my ribs, my recovery took place in the warm-water pool at the center.
I am among many who can tell this kind of story. And that’s an added wellness benefit—others in the pool. Our on-site support group. This pool is keeping us from depending on visits to doctors. It’s keeping some of us out of assisted living facilities because it’s providing us with a place to self-heal. It’s providing us with the kind of exercise we need to remain healthy. Isn’t this what the community needs, not just for senior citizens, but admittedly especially for senior-citizens because they have such fewer options? Is the report true that they are the least-well-served sector of our community? Surely, they deserve wellness too, ultimately for the sake of the whole community?
The shock of the letter which announced the closing of the facility, the timing, and the manner in which this announcement was made, and the way it has otherwise been handled have upset. even devastated many of those who have relied on the Martin Wellness Center pool as a major wellness element in their lives.
Surely, anyone who does comprehensive and empathetic research and applies creative vision will conclude that no other facility in this area is virtually set up to accomplish all this at one location. And it has been doing it well. For water-dependent exercise, no other place in the area can serve the population it has been serving in so many ways. Ease of parking, of pool access, of on-site guardians trained to be there if/when we need them, all this has been possible at this one location. Ready and waiting to be further appreciated.
Martin Wellness Center is indeed a place where wellness happens. Should we not all be doing everything that we possibly can to keep it in operation as a non-profit facility? As insurance companies keep advertising, but more importantly, as all our health-givers are preaching, ounces of prevention are worth pounds of cure. Given its proven benefit to the community, the Jeff and Becky Martin Community Wellness Center should be considered a human-cost-efficient operation.
Sincerely, and with the hope that we can all work together to save this facility for the purposes originally intended,
Georgia Toppe