Backyard Swim Camp Draws Hundreds in Kirkwood

What began with a single blow-up pool plopped in a suburban backyard has become a summer tradition for generations of area residents.

Ackermann’s Swim Program is tucked away on a double lot behind Michael Shoop’s house on a leafy residential lane in Kirkwood. Yet, thousands of families have made their way to his backyard over the last 60 years to deliver their children for swim lessons, play and old-fashioned fun.

“There’s nothing like this in the country that we know of,” said Shoop’s father, DeVere Shoop, resident “grandpa.”

Ackermann’s began in 1949, when Michael Shoop’s grandmother, Alice Ackermann, decided to expand her Happy Times Nursery School, which she ran on the second floor of her home on Curran Avenue. She thought that knowing how to swim was an important life skill.

Through word of mouth (“Mrs. A.” did not believe in advertising, her family says,) thousands of children came to the backyard camp over the years. Many of today’s campers are second, third, even fourth generation, Michael Shoop said.

“They want their kids to have the same old-school, non-commercialized experience they did,”  he said.

At Ackermann’s, that’s what they get. Children are dropped off at the driveway, barefoot and carrying their lunch and a towel. Throughout the day, kids rotate through swimming lessons to lunch and playtime before being picked up again at the curb, in an well-orchestrated system honed through the years to get parents in and out in a jiffy.

These days there are two above-ground pools and two in-ground pools ranging in depth from 2.5 to 5 feet. They share the backyard with a playground--complete with a beached ski boat painted to look like a whale, wet and dry sandpits and a covered play area. In addition to teaching swimming strokes and water safety, counselors lead children in games and play.

“Mother said the secret (to our success) was being at the house with the backyard aspect. We jump rope, we play checkers, we do the basic things,” said Beverly Shoop, who co-owns the camp with son Michael, 40.

“I’ve had parents tell me who’ve been to every camp in St. Louis that we are the most well-organized,” she said.

This year, roughly 500 kids ages 4 to 11 will come through Ackermann’s, perhaps drawn by the low-tech nature of the camp, the small teacher to student ratio or just by tradition.

Jackie Visnovske of Kirkwood sent all three of her daughters to Ackermann’s to learn how to swim. She first heard about it from a friend of a friend when her family was living miles away in West County.

They could have taken swim lessons at closer big city pool with diving boards, water slides and such. But Ackermann’s was so much more fun, she said.

Mrs. A had a playground and a turtle habitat with box turtles to feed. The children learned old-fashioned string games like cat’s cradle and played simple games like checkers. They jumped rope and sorted seashells. They got to bring their lunch and go swimming twice a day.

“It’s kind of old-school fun kids’ stuff,” Visnovske said. “It didn’t seem like you were being forced to learn something because it was all wrapped up in fun.”

Visnovske’s youngest daughter, Claire, 13, a student at Nipher Middle School, is going back this year as a junior volunteer. She’ll help shepherd younger kids through their activities and help instructors by demonstrating swimming strokes.

“She can’t wait,” Visnovske said. “Bev is like a grandma to all these kids.’’

Bev Shoop, 72, grew up helping her mother run the camp. She eventually became co-owner, along with her son.

“My sister was 8, and I was 10, and my mom said get in there and teach,” she recalled. Mrs. A. died in 2007 at the age of 92 – she remained involved with the camp into her 90s, the family says.

Mike Shoop learned to swim at camp and was helping his grandparents keep the place running by the time he was 10. As a teenager he got his lifeguard certification and started teaching swimming lessons.

Shoop said he still teaches four lessons a day and over the years has taught thousands of kids. Now he’s beginning to teach some of the children of the kids he taught back then.

He loves it, too.

“This is all I’ve ever known,” Shoop said. “I’ve got a degree in international finance. I thought I was going to be a stockbroker. I lasted for literally four months, I think.

“This is as far removed from that as possible.”