Director Of Friends Of Hoyt Park & Pool Makes Connections Matter

WAUWATOSA, WI—Everyone remembers her childhood swimming hole and hanging with friends while splashing in the water. Somehow there was always someone new and interesting to meet.

It was a Wauwatosa woman's goal to honor such memories by reviving a local swimming pool.

Patch asked readers to name inspirational women for Women's History Month, and Kit Slawski, executive director of the Friends of Hoyt Park & Pool, came highly recommended.

Slawski stepped up to join a group of women who came together in 2006 to revitalize Hoyt Park and bring back its pool in Wauwatosa. Many of the local women expressed displeasure that they moved to a community without a pool. Slawski became involved after attending a meeting on the topic.

"We all grew up swimming in local pools," she said. "I and another mom found out we actually grew up in suburbs of Cleveland, not far away from each other."

The Friends of Hoyt Park & Pool was formed as a nonprofit group to raise money to build and operate The TOSA Pool, which opened in 2011.

The group has a 55-year lease with Milwaukee County to operate the pool and does not receive taxpayer support for pool operations.

Around the time the pool opened, Slawski lost her full-time job. The then-president of the friends group was grateful Slawski became available to help. "She said they ran around like chickens with their heads cut off for six weeks before the pool opened," Slawski said.

After the first season of the pool, Slawski stepped into the executive director role and is now going into her 10th pool season.

She said it is important for there to be a place for different generations to bring kids to the pool.

The TOSA Pool at Hoyt Park is an outdoor community pool and features zero-depth entry, competitive lap lanes, shaded areas and a giant slide. The TOSA Pool provides summertime activities for all ages. The pool also has a restored 1930s bathhouse, which can be rented year-round.

The community spot isn't just for swimming: It also has an outdoor beer garden called The Landing. "Even during the pandemic, we figured out how to open the pool safely and made it work," Slawski said.

Bobby Pantuso, board president, told Patch the pandemic made for a crazy year. "Going into 2020, it was supposed to be a year of celebration as it was our 10th season," Pantuso said. "It quickly became a year of crisis management. The easy thing to do last year would have been to keep the pool closed, yet Kit persisted. She had to deal with rapidly changing guidelines and regulations from various levels of government, and she just found a way. Kit was the exact right leader at the exact right time."

Meeting New People

The apple didn't fall too far from the tree with making connections. Slawski's parents, Rose Marie and Matt Wey, ran The Little Red House B&B bed-and-breakfast for 14 years. They were travel enthusiasts and were inspired by B&B's they visited.

The couple interacted with people from all over the world because of their hostelry's proximity to the Froedtert & the Medical College of Wisconsin. The B&B would often have guests who were visiting students enrolled in the college.

Slawski recalled a South American soccer player who visited Wisconsin to do a clinic with the Milwaukee Wave soccer team. Her sons were becoming more active in soccer. "He was wonderful about giving backyard tips in soccer. It was a wonderful experience," she said.

Because Milwaukee is "a city of festivals," the B&B would welcome many different people, she said. She recalled artists from the Mount Mary's Starving Artists event, as well as Harley Fest's 100th. "It was quite an experience. The motorcyclists who stayed with them would give my kids rides," she said.

The event was so massive, Slawski's siblings ended up pitching in. Slawski said several of them ended up with encampments in their homes in Wauwatosa and Milwaukee.

The Wauwatosa resident started volunteering when her sons were in elementary school. Her kids got involved in the Irish sport of hurling, an outdoor stick and ball sport.

Slawski has tried to play but admitted she is not very good at it.

The Milwaukee Hurling Club is one of the sport's largest clubs and has 300 members. The game is played on summer weekends.

Slawski ended up volunteering to help out with the club. As a volunteer and board member of the club, she helped plan the players' trip to Ireland in 2007.