San Luis Valley Aquatics is a new, local group working to build an aquatic center in Monte Vista, Colorado. We live in a high desert in south-central Colorado called the San Luis Valley (SLV). We are surrounded by the beauty of 12,000-foot majestic peaks but we have very limited resources, as indicated by the fact that our poverty rates are the highest in Colorado. Our 8,000 square mile land mass is the size of New Jersey, and we have no public indoor pool that is centrally located for Valley residents to use.
We want to create an aquatic center that attracts SLV residents and visitors of all backgrounds into a shared social space, providing an opportunity to learn to swim as well as allowing for the playful, joyous, and competitive activity of swimming. In turn, we believe that this health-wellness space will help reduce our high rates of obesity and heart disease as well as provide our youth with constructive entertainment.