South Side Seniors Fight To Save Their ‘Magical’ Water Aerobics Class

WASHINGTON PARK — A beloved water aerobics class for older people that faced an uncertain future has now been extended.

The class had been canceled by the Chicago Park District in May, but was restarted following an outcry from seniors who took the class. However, it was unclear if the class was going to continue for the second half of the summer session next week until Friday afternoon, after Block Club wrote about the situation.

“Given the popularity of this class, we have extended programming at this site for an additional week this year, and it will now culminate on August 21,” Park District spokesperson Irene Tostado said in an email.

Whether the class will return next year is still unknown, but Tostado encouraged class participants to reach out to the local park supervisor in support of it coming back.

The class dates to 2024, when Washington Park’s large outdoor pool reopened. Volunteer instructor Erick Johnson led a daily class of older people through an hour of full-body workouts each summer since then. The class normally sees 30 students a day, but it has attracted twice that that during some sessions. 

Participants, who range in age from 60 to 90, say the class was particularly helpful in their lives. Marie Gunn, 82, said the exercise kept her arthritis asymptomatic. Rose Hanley, a retired nurse from Hyde Park, said it allowed her to stay active after her heart surgery — and helped her meet people after retirement.

And they raved about Johnson, whose resume says he is a certified water aerobics instructor who has been teaching since 2001. They said he bought pool equipment for the class with his own money and once even invited a violinist from the Chicago Symphony Orchestra to play for a cool-down period after the session was complete.  

It was “magical,” said former lifeguard Ariel Rogers, who worked at the Washington Park pool last summer. “It was like [the attendees] are kids again.”  

But in May, the Park District moved to end the class. Andrew Walsh, the Park District’s director of aquatics, wrote in an email shared with Block Club that the existence of the class had never been “reported up the chain” by local park staff. He characterized the activity, which was not on the official parks schedule, as Johnson leading “a group of seniors in an unofficial capacity during [Senior] Swim time.” 

In the same email, Walsh said Park District policy dictates that “no classes can be taught by any individual who is not an employee of the Chicago Park District” and therefore Johnson would not be allowed to teach a class this summer.

Johnson was not available for comment.

Terry Rudd, a class participant from Back of the Yards, said she learned from Johnson later in May that he would not be allowed to run the class this year. 

Rudd said she was upset that not only was the class ending, but that the Park District was not going to replace it with an official class on the schedule. 

“We are grown women,” she said. “We don’t want to be hiding.”

Rudd also said the only other aquatic exercise class listed on the Park District’s website for any age group and offered during the summer — at 7 a.m. at the National Teacher’s Academy near Chinatown — was inaccessible for most of her group.

Upset, about 15 class participants banded together and attended a community meeting held by Ald. Jeanette Taylor’s (20th) office in May. Seven of them also spoke about the importance of the class at the Park District’s Board of Commissioners meeting in June.

At the meeting, Park District Supt. Carlos Ramirez-Rosa directed them to Walsh, who later met with the class members. That meeting was also attended by another Park District manager who participants say was sympathetic to their cause.

Participants later received an email forwarded by Taylor’s staff from Jim Harney, Park District project manager, stating a class was being added to the schedule. However, it would only meet three days per week because of the difficulty in hiring lifeguards and a need for staffing at beaches, he said.

Tostado said that classes have to be led by district instructors, who must be lifeguards certified by the American Red Cross and also have Instructor Training Certification. Johnson is allowed to attend the class and “assist in demonstrating the instructor’s exercises,” she said.

Tostado said compared to other seasons, summer aquatic programs are limited because “the Park District balances public access to pools with swim times for all ages, including day campers during the six-week camp program.”

The class participants were ecstatic the class came back in late June but were dismayed when it appeared the class was ending this week. But the extended dates for the class — which runs Mondays, Wednesday and Fridays — is now updated on the official schedule for the Washington Park pool.

“Every time we ended a class, we would get in a circle, and people would pray, thanking that we had something like this on the South Side, and we had access to it,” Rudd said.

The seniors are also anxious to know if the class will return next summer.

Asked if it would, Tostado was non-commital, but wrote: “The Park District welcomes community feedback on program/class offerings and seasonal programming schedules reflect that input. We invite patrons to connect with their local Park District Supervisor to share their interest in specific park program offerings for all of the seasons, including next year’s summer session.”