By Pauline Masson –
As the Pacific Swim Club launches into its 25th season it might be timely to note that this club was the brainchild of a young police officer who disagreed with people who said there was nothing for young people to do in Pacific.
“We have a swimming pool,” he said. “Why don’t we organize a swim club?”
As I remember it, it took a couple of years in the 1990s for the idea to take shape. But once the swim club became active, two big things happend. Daily practice kept Pacific’s young citizens working every weekday during the summer. And as a bonus, the swimming competitions these young athletes competed in – and the meets hosted at the Pacific pool – kept our young people in newspaper photos and headlines year after year. And it continues to this day
I first met Matt Mansell when he joined the police department in 1989 where he was named the department juvenile officer. He said it was his job to look for proactive ways to keep young people out of trouble. It was a no brainer, he said. The goal was to give them things to do.
He helped inaugurate the successful D.A.R E. Program in 1994. Every fifth grader at Zitzman, Truman and St. Bridget elementary schools would go through the twelve week, one hour a week, 50-minute training program that covered the dangers of smoking and drugs, and the role of the police officer in the community.
Two years later, in 1996, he wrote a successful grant application to put an officer in the school for three years. From that time the present Meramec Valley has always had resources officers on campus.
No one was happier with the the two programs that Mansell.
“This has been a 100 percent positive program,” Mansell said. “Once kids began to interact with police officers out of the cars, they built up trust. Kids know what is going on in their own neighborhood,” Mansell said. “When they have no fear of the police, they’re sometimes the one who tell the police what they need to know.”
This program was so successful with Pacific officers that by 2014 Officer Steve Zapolski asked to be assigned to the job of D.A.R.E. officer after only two years on the job in the Pacific police department. Zapolski was also the resource officer at Zitzman, Riverbend and St. Bridget schools.
Zapolski loved being a teacher, and echoed Mansell’s belief that the program was building a new relationship between police and area youngsters. He said he felt that the resource office and D.A.R.E. Program make the policeman part of the community. When he was out, on the road or in a store and a student or parent said ‘Hi,’ he knew he has put them at ease.
I didn’t uncover the exact year the Pacific Swim Club competed in its first meet but by 2000 the Pacific Swim Club had 50 members and was winning meets and breaking records against swimmers from other communities. The club was so successful it soon moved from the Suburban Conference, for smaller clubs, to Gateway Swm League which pitted Pacific swimmers against larger clubs and more experienced swimmers.
By 2004 the Pacific Swim Club had 80 swimmers. And the Pacific pool became a popular spot for regional meets because of its large concrete apron. The community became accustomed to driving by the park and seeing a veritable city of colored tents and hundreds of swimmers around the pool. Coaches and winning swimmers found themselves listed on newspaper sports pages.
This year, as the city wrestled with whether there would be a 2023 swimming season in Pacific, members of the Pacific Swim Club lobbied the city to find a way to keep the pool open.
Mansell was absent from the Pacific Police Department for twelve years when he worked in private security. But he longed to return to the Pacific Police Department, and decided to run for the top job. He ran three times for police chief, in 2002, 2006 and 2010, when he was elected.
The new chief was a new man with new ideas. He established the K-9 Officer program, which was a huge success as trained drug sniffing police dogs assisted in several huge drug busts.He established a police chaplain to assist officers who had to deliver bad news to victim’s families. He sent Police Lt. Don Locke to a special FBI Training Program. He and his officers participated in the Governor’s program to train police officers to recognize and deal with persons with special needs who found themselves in emergency situations.
He personally attended an Invitation Only White House Conference in Washington D.C. for 21st Century Policing for national police chiefs.
But the young people of Pacific were never far from his mind.
In 2013 he decided to reorganize the former Police Explorer’s Cub that had been disbanded because of an event in another city. He really worked at publicizing the benefits of the experiences explorers would enjoy. He invited boys and girls ages 14 to 20, or younger, if they’ve graduated from the eighth grade to join the reorganized Police Explorer’s Club. He promised the yougsters an opportunity to explore the field of law enforcement and community service. Jill Pigg, Jeff Filley and Kevin Krupia agreed to serve on a citizen committee to help coordinate the program.
My friend and Jill’s daughter, Mary Beth Pigg was one of the first explorers. She went on to join the Pacific Police Department as a dispatcher. But I have a vivid memory of her when she was directing the line of attendees of the popular Spookfest – in her electric green Police Explorer’s shirt – I asked her if I could sneak through the line to take a picture. She thought about if for several seconds before she nodded and stepped into the line to make a space for me. “Its the newspaper,” she told the people she stepped in front of.
I was amazed at the amount of work Mansell inspired these kids to do. Wearing their explorer shirts, they were seen directing families to the Spookfest in City Park. Eight explorers were on duty for the BackStoppers Benefit Banquet at the Pacific Eagles, which the Pacific P.D. hosted, helping to buss tables and collect decorations as activities ended.
The swim club and swim meets are the most visible element of Mansell’s legacy as police officer and police chief because they are so beautiful to look at and occupy such a prominent location in the community. But I have to tell you . . . his belief that all kids would do good in the right circumstances helped us be a better community.
ADDITION: Lauren Dailey just posted on I Heart Pacific that she and her brother were on the inaugural Pacific swim team in 1993. That would make 2023, the 30th year for the club – not the 25th as I stated in my lead sentence. Lauren said there was a photo of that first team that used to hang at the pool, which I am going to try to locate.
A great man who evidently should be
Recognized for what he has done for Our Pacific Youth
Maybe there might be some type of plaque at the pool that recognizes his contribution to the Pacific Community