Fundraising helps to keep one of state's oldest pools afloat

BELDEN – For the last three years, the village of Belden has been slowly and steadily raising money to update its 100-year-old pool.

Since 2020, pool fundraisers included annual garage sales, monthly soup suppers, and Christmas events like a Nativity show and Festival of Trees.

The effort received a big bump at its swimming pool Birthday Bash in August, raising more than $22,000 in proceeds from the food stand, raffle and donations – more than enough to receive an additional $20,000 match from an anonymous donor, said Patty Schulte, Belden.

And residents aren’t giving up with additional fundraisers planned, needing about $30,000 more to reach its $100,000 goal.

Soup suppers are planned each month in January, February and March, and a garage sale will be held next June for the cause.

Schulte will also be applying for two grants – one state and one federal – both due at the beginning of 2024.

Improvements to the pool house including roofing and plumbing have already been completed but there’s still plenty to do at the pool considered the third oldest in the state, she said.

The pool’s plumbing was set to be repaired or replaced yet this fall but weather did not cooperate, said Patty Schulte, one of the organizers behind the pool fundraisers.

“We were really hoping it would hold out,” she said of trying to schedule the work in mid-October. “It’s been about 40 years since we re-did the plumbing.”

Skimmers need to be replaced as well as some of the piping.

The work will be pushed off until spring 2024 along with work on the pool’s body.

“The pool vessel itself has never been stripped all the way down to the cement,” Schulte said. “There’s about 100 years of paint on it.”

Sandblasting the body and replacing some seams on the bottom is planned.

“They’ll do a new finish on the pool itself,” Schulte said. “Most of the finishes now, 10-15 years they last without having to repaint. We’ll be very happy not to have to repaint it every year.”

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Want to help? Anyone wishing to donate, can send funds to: P.O. Box 37, Village of Belden Pool Fund, Belden, NE 68717.