LSA is a competitive swim league for children ages 6-18, that utilizes the nine joint district pools for Levittown Residents. Fifty years ago, William Levitt completed construction of his planned community, unique in so many ways that he was featured on the cover of Time magazine. Levitt included nine community pools in his master plan. Out of this grew [...] a new innovation; a community based sw
imming and diving program, The Levittown Swimming Association (LSA). The organization was founded during 1954 when residents George and Ann Columbo brought several residents together with the idea of creating a competitive swimming and diving program where their sons [could] compete on a local level. Tom and Ann joined with Bill Mattor and Marge Boettor and created the LSA. LSA held its first season of swim meets during the summer of 1955 under the supervision of Tom Colombo, the first LSA president. LSA is a swimming program that utilizes the nine joint district pools. It is an all volunteer, not-for-profit organization that is now in its 59th season. The basic foundation of LSA was a program where each of the nine pools in the district had a team where children develop and learn competitive swimming skills, and then use them to compete against each other in swim meets during the season. Many of our former swimmers have gone on to join Town of Hempstead or County of Nassau as paid lifeguards. Other swimmers and coaches also serve as swim coaches and officials for a variety of other levels of competitive swim programs. In many organizations, after a person has served as president or as a board member, they will fade into the background. LSA is one of few where after a person serves as president they serve again and again and wear many hats. After my first two terms as president ended I served two terms as a vice-president and third term as president and as a board member and corresponding secretary. We also have many former swimmers who have come back over the years to serve LSA. LSA has been very fortunate to find quality people to serve our organization. This article is full of praise for the volunteers and swimmers of LSA. The organization I wrote about are the people in your community. They are your friends, neighbors and relatives. They provide Levittown with much to be proud of. Why don't you share in this great organization. If you have children who are interested in swimming let them come to one of our practices or if you're just interested in sharing a few hours of time with your neighbors come watch one of our meets. It is well worth your time.
