A swimming success:
How Elaine Kaplan Served Newburgh and the Mount
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t’s a Saturday afternoon at Mount Saint Mary College, and dozens of local children from the Newburgh Armory Unity Center are having a great time learning to swim. The lessons are structured after the American Red Cross’s renowned swimming program. Certified instructors – including volunteers from the Armory, the Mount’s swim team, and other local teachers – are the backbone of the year-round program. And none of it would have been possible without the vision and dedication of philanthropist Elaine Kaplan. Elaine Kaplan is the late wife of Newburgh businessman and friend of the college, William Kaplan. Through the William and Elaine Kaplan Family Foundation, the Kaplans have done much for the Mount, including helping the college to acquire the properties for Hudson Hall and Sakac Hall. The Kaplan Family Foundation has also supported the Mount in scholarships and other projects including the renovation of Hudson Hall; the creation of the Elaine and William Kaplan Recreation Center and fields; building the Mathematics, Science & Technology Center; and transforming the Dominican Center into one of the college’s main living and learning hubs. Dated October 2, 1992, a plaque hangs in the college’s Elaine and William Kaplan Recreation Center dedicating the pool to Elaine, “whose generosity
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DONOR IMPACT REPORT
funded the construction of this pool for the health, education, and enjoyment of generations to come.” In the book The Kaplan Family Foundation: A Living Legacy, William Kaplan recalls how Sr. Ann Sakac, OP, the fourth president of the Mount, asked the Kaplans for a $1 million donation to build a new recreation center. The original plans for what would become the Elaine and William Kaplan Recreation Center did not include a pool, which was scheduled to be added some time later. “My wife, Elaine, participated in that initial meeting with Sr. Ann, and she said the college should build the swimming pool right away,” noted William Kaplan.
So it came to pass that the Kaplan Family Foundation nearly doubled their gift to the college, and the Elaine and William Kaplan Recreation Center opened with a regulation size gym for basketball and volleyball, a weight room, a track – and of course, a large swimming pool. Today, the young students of the Newburgh Armory Unity Center – a free educational facility founded by William Kaplan – learn to swim every Saturday. Husband and wife team Valerie Bryant MBA ’98 and Darren Bryant ’95, coordinators of the Armory swimming program and natives of Newburgh, say that teaching kids how to swim isn’t just for fun – it’s
