‘We brought back the Mickelson Pool!’

Today, I am extremely proud to announce that Sutter is officially hosting a grand reopening of the Mickelson pool Aug. 20 at 10 a.m., 75 S. El Camino Real, San Mateo after spending $1 million this year to rehabilitate the facility. It took an incredible grassroots effort and a paradigm shift in thinking at Sutter to reopen the pool and I’m incredibly grateful to see all of the community’s efforts pay off.

I want to especially thank Lindsay’s years of persistence to get us to this point. I also want to thank Warner Thomas, who assumed the reins of CEO of Sutter Health Corporate in Sacramento in November 2022 and Darian Harris, who became CEO of the Mills-Peninsula Medical Center in Burlingame and San Mateo in July 2023 for realizing the value the pool has in San Mateo County.

The timeline of the pool’s closure spans four years and eight months and includes some significant milestones in Lindsay’s grassroots effort that many of the Daily Journal’s readers may recall.

Lindsay approached Bill Silverfarb in my office to ask our support to draft a resolution urging Sutter to reopen the therapy pool and make it still available for community use. We asked then Supervisor Carole Groom to cosponsor the resolution and the Board of Supervisors unanimously adopted it Feb. 22, 2022. It was the first win in Lindsay’s quest.

Over the next year, outreach was conducted to each of the county’s 20 cities and towns and its two health care districts, Sequoia and Peninsula, with each one gradually adopting similar resolutions or letters of support. Lindsay and Bill also worked together on a letter writing campaign, a press strategy and a joint perspective the Daily Journal published in August 2022.

Then we formed an ad-hoc committee with new Supervisor Noelia Corzo, Dennis Zell from the Peninsula Health Care District, Kim Griffin from the Sequoia Healthcare District and Lindsay which first met March 22, 2023 to strategize on how to rally support from our local state elected officials including Assemblymember Marc Berman, Assemblymember Diane Papan, Assemblymember Phil Ting, state Sen. Josh Becker, state Sen. Scott Wiener and other stakeholders. We eventually got their support including U.S. Rep. Kevin Mullin and it paid off.

Within a day of that first meeting, Sutter announced it planned to reopen the pool but we were then told not for another three years. It was incredible news but still a bit sad for pool users including seniors, adults and children with chronic pain or disabilities, patients recovering from surgery, pregnant women, individuals in wheelchairs and others who find the warm water healing. Mickelson, after all, is the only therapy pool of its kind in San Mateo County.

We were happy but questioned why it would take three years. Lindsay continued to persist until Sutter officials invited us to an official groundbreaking celebration Jan. 6, 2024 at Mickelson to announce the pool’s rehabilitation would be completed by summer. Tears flowed and those gathered at the groundbreaking and sang a revised version of the Raging Grannies titled “We’re rebuilding Mickelson Pool,” to the tune of “My Bonnie lies over the ocean.”

You had to be there to feel the joy of the crowd and see the tears flowing. After being told “no” repeatedly, Lindsay’s efforts were a success. Lindsay made a call to action and rallied support that is seldom seen. Her effort shows how important community organizing can be in achieving a common goal. She brought a large swath of our community together, but she couldn’t have done it without the support of others, especially the Board of Directors of Warm Water Wellness including Romy Bauer, Michael Schrader, Jane Stahl, Brian Zywiciel, Pam Heman, Steven Stahl and Astrid Varteressian.

So, if you are free 10 a.m., Tuesday Aug. 20, 75 S. El Camino Real, San Mateo join us as we celebrate the grand opening and sing along with the newest version of the Raging Grannies song titled “We brought back the Mickelson pool! See the announcement from Sutter here: https://vitals.sutterhealth.org/mickelson-center.

David Canepa is vice president of the San Mateo County Board of Supervisors.