Andrea Grady and her family have always enjoyed water activities, so naturally when they moved to Vanderhoof the pool and aquatic centre was bound to be an important place for them.
Grady is the president of the Nechako Valley Swim Club. She moved to Vanderhoof in 2017 after her husband got a transfer from Alberta.
“My family and I kind of chose this area because we knew there was a swimming pool being developed in Vanderhoof,” said Grady. All three of her children were part of, and loved, the swim club back in Alberta. But when they moved to northwest B.C there was no pool yet in Vanderhoof. So Grady travelled back and forth with the kids to Prince George to use the pool. Eventually she became more and more involved with swimming herself.
Back in Vanderhoof , she got together with five to six like-minded people from the community who wanted to set up a swim club as soon as the pool opened in 2019.
“So we actually formed our society about a year before the pool opened in hoping that we’d be able to have a swim club and to be able to get in the water as soon as the pool opens,” she said.
Since it was formed, the swim club in Vanderhoof has played a huge role in the development of local athletes.
Brady finds Vanderhoof a “really active” community offering several sports and activities like football, hockey, speedskating etc. ” There is a lot of choice here,” she says and adds that’s one of the best parts about living in Vanderhoof.
She and her family enjoy all the activities this place has to offer. Vanderhoof is a gem for offering so many sports
“In the summertime our life revolves around swimming. So we’re at the pool a lot. And we’re traveling to swim meets almost every second weekend.”
In the winters they are heavily involved in alpine skiing. Grady and her husband helped set up the Murray Alpine society. “So we help with ski racing and ski development out at Murray ridge.”
“I just think that Vanderhoof is a gem for offering so many sports but the offerings are not just limited to sports,” she says, adding, “It helps the area is in a beautiful spot.”