Pascack Valley Swim Club Celebrates 50th Year

The is celebrating its 50th anniversary this year.

The pool was originally built in 1962, though it did not actually open until the spring of 1963, according to Al Chestone, the original chairman of the club's board of trustees. At the time, it was called the Westwood Swim Club.

Chestone said he was inspired after visiting other clubs around the area.

"I was so impressed, I thought we should start a swim club here in Westwood," Chestone said.

The group that would become the original board of trustees began meeting in Chestone's basement in 1961. When they first visited the site that would later become the club, Tillman Street did not yet exist, so the club's founders had to follow a cow path from Old Hook Road.

Today, the renamed club features an Olympic-size pool with two diving boards and a slide as well as a smaller kiddie pool, a variety of other activities like basketball, ping-pong and Nok Hockey and a concession stand. The club holds swimming lessons, which are open to non-members, and has its own competitive swim and dive team.

For many area residents, including club Manager Lisa Adamek, the pool is a family tradition. As a child, she joined the pool with her family in the '80s and today she brings her own child to the pool.

"I want the experiences I had as a child to be passed down to my kids and the other families," Adamek said.

The club is also a family affair for Margie Guttilla, the current president of the board of trustees, whose son learned to swim there and later worked as a lifeguard and assistant manager.

After a period of low membership in the '90s, the club's leadership made some upgrades and changed the name from the Westwood Swim Club to the Pascack Valley Swim Club to let people know it was not open exclusively to Westwood residents. The club also established the non-bond membership alongside its original bond membership. The bonds are used to pay back other members' bonds, but Guttilla said not all of the clubs members wanted to participate in the bond program. They now have an average of about 200 families each year and also bring in some local camps for a few days each summer, Guttilla said.

Guttilla won the New Jersey Pool Manager's Association's distinguished trustee award earlier this year.

This year has also brought some bad news for the club. Original manager Bill Clifford, who worked there for 30 years, died earlier this year. The club will be hosting a rememberance for Clifford August 25.

In the meantime, the club is planning a 50th anniversary celebration for July 28. The club's leaders said they hope to continue growing their membership and are looking forward to more summers with their families.

"We're all here because we want to be here, and we love it," Adamek said.

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