When the weather is milder for going outside after time in a pool, Wiscasset's Lyle Means plans to start exercising in Wiscasset Community Center's. Thanks to an effort his daughter Julee Ketelhut started and other people and entities joined her in, getting into the water will be as easy as wheeling one of the new water wheelchairs down the pool's ramp entrance.

"This community is amazing," Ketelhut said of the response to fundraising. "They stepped up. Wiscasset is a generous, community-minded village."

Three chairs have been bought, mostly through donations including one from Islebrook Village, the senior living facility about to open down the road at the former site of Wiscasset Primary School. Parks and Recreation covered some costs also, including the narrower, third chair, for fitting through some doorways if needed, Aquatics Director Nori Mcleod said.

The chairs have mesh seats and PVC piping, Mcleod said. With many seniors among the Center's users and more seniors about to be nearby at Islebrook, she expects the new chairs to be an asset.

Islebrook Village Executive Director Jenalee Hill said its $850 donation was "kind of a no brainer," with WCC so close by. "Our senior population is probably going to be the people using (the chairs) the most ... And so it seemed like a really good way to spend some of our money and to provide a resource to the Wiscasset community," Hill said.

The pool is a great place for someone with mobility issues, Mcleod explained. "It gives them a little bit of freedom while they're in the water, where they can stretch out, and exercise different muscles that they may not necessarily be (able) to use on land."

Ketelhut's initiative did not surprise Lyle and Glynda Means. They are used to it. "Even as a child, she always enjoyed getting something going that was beneficial to others," her mother said. "We're just real proud of her, because she always gets involved in this kind of stuff and she carries it through well, also," her father said.

"She went right to work and found some (water wheelchairs to buy), and got donations," her mother said. "It'll be good for us, for our needs, especially Lyle, it will be a big boost for him, as far as keeping active and keeping his muscles built up. And so we're anxious to get there" to the Center they have been told is a very nice, very clean facility.

"We're looking forward to it, and making some new friends at the pool," she added.

Lucy Oyster works in sponsorship and marketing at WCC. She and Ketelhut put out word the chairs were being sought and about five donations came in, Oyster said. "It was really lovely. I find that in our community we have a lot of people willing to give to things that hit close to home for them."

A physical therapist is in the loop about Lyle Means' planned pool therapy and is excited about it, Lyle Means said. Means said he has some apprehension, but only about being in a pool for the first time in several years. He called the water wheelchairs a great idea and he hopes other people who could benefit will use them, too.

Oyster reminded readers, the Cooper-DiPerri scholarship fund at WCC can help people afford the Center's programs. For more on that or on the new chairs, call 882-8230.