Goldfish Swim School to open doors in August in Redmond Town Center

Franchise owners JJ and Joette Dalton hope the school will help reduce drowning statistics.

Two years ago, JJ and Joette Dalton made the plunge to move from the Midwest to the West Coast with one goal in mind: open a Goldfish Swim School.

With much anticipation and hard work, the swim school will officially open its doors to the Redmond community come August.

The new swim school — located on the ground level of Redmond Town Center — is among 85 locations in the Goldfish chain. The 8,500 square foot facility is offering a wide range of swimming classes for children from 4 months old to 12 years old, of all skill levels. Goldfish offers year-round swim instruction with highly trained instructors and low instructor-to-student ratios. The swim lessons are based around the curriculum “science of swim play.” In addition to swim lessons, Goldfish will offer weekly family swims for both members and non-members. According to the Daltons the pool is set to 90 degrees making it a “shiver-free” pool.

Walking around the nearly finished facility, the Daltons highlighted the facility’s colorful private tiki-style family changing huts and private family showers, blow dry bar stations, snack bar, retail shop and tropical decor. The facility also includes an air-conditioned viewing gallery for parents to watch lessons, a stroller-parking station and a diaper-changing station.

“We want the community to know that we are so dedicated in getting as many kids water safe as possible,” Joette said. “Especially in this community that’s surrounded by water. Water safety is our main priority.”

Most Goldfish sites are family owned franchises, including the new Eastside location. JJ said he and his wife wanted to work together on something “mission-based” that offered value to a community.

“Having raised our [two daughters] through a lot of play-based activities, the science of swim play really resonated with us,” JJ said. “We thought we would come and help get kids water safe on the Eastside, work together and live in the Pacific Northwest.”

Redmond residents said the location is perfect and after much feedback from the community, the Daltons said families are happy to have a pool that is walking distance from their downtown apartments.

“Our goal is to make it easy for parents,” JJ said. “Goldfish is built by parents with parents in mind. We want the swim experience to be easy for them as well.”

According to Joette, August is a slow month for Goldfish chains but with their grand opening, they will have one of the strongest opening any Goldfish has had in the system.

“We’re pretty proud of that and we want to make sure we do it right,” she said. “We’re all about giving customers the golden experience.”

To learn more, see www.goldfishswimschool.com/redmond.

Goldfish swim school will open come August. The swim school is located on the ground level at the Redmond Town Center. Stephanie Quiroz/staff photo

Goldfish swim school will open come August. The swim school is located on the ground level at the Redmond Town Center. Stephanie Quiroz/staff photo

The Goldfish pool is set to 90 degrees making it a “shiver-free” zone. Stephanie Quiroz/staff photo

The Goldfish pool is set to 90 degrees making it a “shiver-free” zone. Stephanie Quiroz/staff photo