Georgina residents now served first for swimming lessons
Georgina to stagger resident and nonresident registration days moving forward
Yorkregion.com
Feb. 20, 2020
Amanda Persico
Georgina is joining the ranks of other York Region municipalities in offering separate resident and nonresident registration dates for recreational programs.
Registration for Georgina residents opens March 3 for spring programs and June 2 for summer programs. Nonresident registration dates follow a week later, on March 10 and June 9.
Cover of spring summer activity guide
Currently, East Gwillimbury and King Township are the only municipalities in York Region that do not stagger registration days for residents and non-residents.
King Township, Markham, Newmarket and Vaughan offer isolated registration days for summer camps, and Aurora, Markham and Vaughan host separate registration days for aquatics programs only.
Last fall, Georgina mother Erin Dunn raised the issue after her daughter, who requires adapted swimming lessons, lost her sport to another family in another community.
The town offers adapted one-to-one swimming lessons designed for those with mobility issues, where swimmers progress at their pace, alongside regular classes. The town also hosts sensory adapted swimming lessons that are less populated and quiet, providing those with sensory needs a distraction-free environment.
After a failing attempt to register online during previous recreation registration days, Dunn tried to register in person at a town facility.
Within an hour, swimming lessons were gobbled up by registrants both in person and online -- and by both Georgina residents and non-Georgina residents.
“I still might not have gotten a spot,” she said at the time. “But those coveted spots shouldn’t be given away to people who don’t live in Georgina.”
The new spring and summer Activity Guide is already available online, and hard copies will be delivered through the Georgina Advocate on Feb. 20. Hard copies of the guidebook will also be available at town facilities.
“I’m pleased and impressed,” said Dunn of the town’s recent move to scatter registration dates between residents and non-residents.
“It was a valid concern. Now, residents get the first crack at it.”
After spending the summer months working to get her daughter Kate, then 6, into the water and wearing a life-jacket, Dunn wasn’t able to get an adaptive swimming lesson time until later in the fall.
It took a couple of sessions to rebuild Kate’s confidence, Dunn said, but she passed the level.
The issue of staggering resident and nonresident registration days was discussed in council after the article was initially published in the Georgina Advocate.
But at the time, marketing for the approximate 17,000 recreation guides was already completed, said the town’s recreation and culture director, Dan Buttineau.
“We didn’t have time to adjust our practice,” he said.
The town does charge a higher registration fee for non-residents.
Moving forward, the town will offer separate resident and nonresident registration days.
“We’re listening to the community,” Buttineau said. “This is good news for Georgina residents.”
In the fall, there were also concerns about not meeting the minimum number of registrants to run a program, forcing the town to cancel recreation programs.
“The difference of a week will not make or break it,” Buttineau said.
With separate registration dates for residents and non-residents, Dunn is hoping the online registration process will be smoother after a glitchy attempt last fall.
“It should be easier,” she said. “I’m hoping there’s less online traffic.”
And the town upped its number of adapted swimming lessons being offered compared to last fall and winter session, adding eight additional adapted swimming times this go-around.
The town currently offers 45 different time slots between March and June for adapted swimming lessons, and another 21 during July and August.
Of those 66 adapted swimming lessons, two-thirds are adapted for children and youth with special sensory needs.
