Swimming into the sunset

Gina Harrington has spent a lot of time in the water in Columbia County, and for much of her life, she’s spent it helping other people enjoy the water as well. Now, after almost four decades, she’s retiring.

Harrington got her first paid swim teaching gig when she was 11.

“I was babysitting, and the lady whose daughter I was babysitting said that I could take her up to the pool and give her some swim lessons,” Harrington said.

Harrington grew up in St. Helens, and her best memories of her childhood were spent at the community pool or on the river with her family. She can still remember catching Herb Eisenschmidt’s attention when she was just a kid in the wading pool.

“Mr. Eisenschmidt was walking past on deck, and I was in the wading pool with my hands on the bottom and my legs out behind me kicking, and I said, ‘Mr. E., Mr. E, look at me I can swim,’” Harrington recounted. “And he looked at my mom and he said, ‘You better get that girl some swim lessons.’”

Harrington started swimming with teams when she was about seven or eight years old. She gave up swimming competitively for a couple of years before returning to the pool swimming and taking up springboard diving.

When she went on to college, Harrington continued taking classes in aquatics. She got her Water Safety Instructor (WSI) certification in her last year at OCE, and began teaching in 1979. After another year of college at Eastern Oregon, Harrington moved back to St. Helens for good, teaching swim lessons for the school district at Eisenschmidt Pool.

“I taught lessons for the school district for a number of years, then took a little break,” Harrington said. “I was asked if I wanted to coach the novice group of the Sea lions.”

This was in 1992. Harrington spent the next six years coaching with the program until taking a break in 1998. She returned in 2001 and remained until 2022. During that time, she was also the novice coach for St. Helens High School, from 2004 until about 2014, she said.

Eisenschmidt, which was her own childhood pool, Pacific Athletic Club, and even private residences, have all been places Harrington has taught.

Harrington has spent nearly 40 years coaching and teaching kids and young adults to swim. Even when the world shut down during the pandemic, she was still helping others find their stroke.

“During the pandemic, I was given the opportunity to teach at a private residence using a couples pool. During the pandemic, I was able to work with a number of families, and it made my life during the pandemic seem much better because it was a lot more normal than other people’s lives were,” Harrington said. “In the last month, I have thanked one of the families that I got to work with because I probably helped them, but they certainly helped me.”

Leaving a legacy

Harrington has been all around the club and high school scene for a long time, and it’s getting to the point now where she’s working with kids whose parents were taught by her.

“I have one third-generation family, and the daughter is now teaching. She’s taking the legacy forward. And I have a number of second-generation families that I’ve given swim lessons to,” Harrington said. “The fact that these kids, when they grew up, and had children of their own, thought enough of their swim experience with me to want me to teach their children.”

Harrington still credits Herb Eisenschmidt for helping her discover her passion.

“Mr. E gave me the best gift in the world by helping my love of swim come forward. I’ve known his family for a long time, I gave some of his grandchildren and great-grandchildren swim lessons,” Harrington said. “I can never repay him for the gift that was given to me, but if I can keep the legacy going forward, which I believe I have because I have people that are teaching that I taught.”

Teaching swimming is something she’s passed down to her own kids. Though they are in different professions now, Harrington’s two daughters both taught swimming before starting their careers.

Harrington said she’s had the privilege of teaching and coaching people who have gone on to do great things in the water. One example she gave is a student who has gone on to be a rescue swimmer for the United States Navy. When he started, he didn’t quite swim; he was more of a “thrasher.”

“Taking someone who started out being a thrasher and ended up being a rescue swimmer in the Navy is pretty fun,” Harrington said. “I was actually messaging him today.”

When asked what has changed the most from when she was growing up in St. Helens with regard to swimming, Harrington said availability and affordability came to mind.

When she was young, there were free swim lessons because people were drowning in the Columbia River. The Eisenschmidt Pool was built in part to prevent further loss of life through education in swimming. Harrington said she wishes there were more facilities around where people could swim.

As she steps back from her career in teaching and coaching, Harrington expressed gratitude to the community for their support through the years.

“I just thank everyone who trusted me with their kids. That’s huge, and I took it very seriously,” Harrington said. “Safety is number one, but fun is right next to it.”