Meeting Hours: 

Social Happy Hour, 4:30pm

Meeting, 5:15pm – 6:15pm

Join us as we listen to and learn from Susan Pappalardo, Co-Founder and President of SPLASHForward, about a new Bellevue public pool in development. Her enthusiasm is contagious, and we hope that you will all attend. Susan’s bio and other information on the project are provided below.

Presentation title
A Place for All – the new Bellevue Aquatic Center

Description
It has been fifty-four years since the last new public pool was built on the Eastside. Our population has grown tremendously and is much more diverse. Learn about the nonprofit SPLASHForward’s efforts to bring a game-changing new Bellevue Aquatic Center to the City of Bellevue at Bellevue Airfield Park to meet our aquatic needs, build community, and provide aquatic pathways so that everyone can learn essential life skills to find joy and be safe around water. SPLASHForward is the private funding partner working with the City of Bellevue to bring stakeholder voices to the process, foster community engagement, develop lasting partnerships, and lead the vision for the facility design and usage. The 130,000 square foot aquatic facility will be an economic driver for our local economy. In support of their mission, SPLASHForward supports Eastside aquatic facility efforts and has several water safety initiatives including a HS Lifeguard Training Program that has provided support to over 290 students since 2021. SPLASHForward envisions a world where everyone is safe around water and has equitable access to best-in-class aquatic centers that are vibrant places of pride and inclusive for all. Their mission is to build healthier, stronger, and safer communities by creating equitable access to aquatic facilities and programs that build essential life skills, inclusion, connection, and active lifestyles.

SPLASHForward One Page Sept.2024 Final 1

Speaker bio
Susan is the co-founder and president of the nonprofit SPLASHForward founded in 2018 when the city of Bellevue reawakened their efforts to explore a new comprehensive regional public aquatic center. Susan has 15 years of program management leadership and user interface design experience in computer graphics and mobile software design. She worked at Microsoft for 11 years and has been a Kirkland resident for 32 years where she and her husband raised boy girl twins now in their junior year of college. Susan is a lifelong learner and athlete. A competitive runner, a former long standing volunteer track and cross-county coach for Cascade Striders, and a masters and open water swimmer. She is never far from a pool and has met many outstanding people of all ages and abilities through swimming. She serves on the Advisory Committee for the King County Aquatic Facilities and Parks and Open Space Grant Programs, the Kirkland Arts Center Advisory Council, and served on the City of Kirkland’s Parks Funding Exploratory Committee that proposed the 2023 Prop 1 Parks Measure that included an aquatic and recreation center. Susan chaired the YES! for Kirkland Pools & Parks campaign for Prop 1. She participates in the WA Drowning Prevention Network and is an active member of the King County Play Equity Coalition’s Swim Equity Action Team.