Some pools, like the Chillum splash pool, are packed with birthday parties from early June until late August, prompting the facility to hire fulltime party coordinators to prepare for, cater to and clean up after party stampedes that move in and out of the building from early afternoon to late evening.
Other pools see a spattering of summer pool parties, with a few weekends packed and others empty of the single-digit birthday forays. Pools rent out areas for parties — some are even air conditioned — but facilities don’t offer the swimming pools to individual groups. Even birthday girls and boys are forced to share.
At Allentown Fitness and Splash Park in Fort Washington, pool director Kevin Osborne overseas about 10 birthday parties a week. Like most pools, the Allentown splash park charges between $100 and $250, depending on the number of people and facilities a group rents out. There’s a tent area, a gazebo, an indoor room complete with AC and an area covered with umbrellas.
Observing the behavior of ‘‘general use” swimmers and jubilant birthday partiers, Osborne said, will reveal key differences between the two species.
‘‘They leave a huge mess sometimes,” he said of the birthday goers. ‘‘Other than that, it’s no different than every other summer day when we’re trying to deal with a large amount of people going back and forth.”
A few Prince George’s pools –— especially the indoor variety — like J. Franklyn Bourne Memorial Pool in Seat Pleasant, are flooded with birthday party requests in every season but summer. When the weather gets cold, pool managers said, people look to distract themselves from the frigid air and messy precipitation with symbols of the summer, even if it means showing off a pasty pale skin tone.
‘‘People don’t ever mind being outside during the summer months,” said Greg Gordon, director at Franklyn Bourne pool. ‘‘It’s the fall and winter when they need to come inside.”
The need to be outside during the summer was clearly not felt my guests at the Melifonwu birthday party. Keeping the little ones inside, confined to parents’ seeing distance, was a major plus for many at the party.
‘‘I love the fact that [kids] can roam around freely without having to worry about anything is great,” said Lauren Fraser, a District resident at the Melifonwu shindig. ‘‘They can do stuff without bumping into each other. ... It’s really great for the children and the parents.”
If Fraser had looked down from the reserved perch at the Chillum pool, she would have seen dozens of kids bumping and ramming into each other, including a few taking out innocent bystanders at the tail end of the steepest slides. But it was all in good fun.
As Sean Williams, Zarriah’s father, made last-second preparations for the Saturday afternoon bash, he said Prince George’s pools offer a far superior alternative to the facilities in his native Washington, D.C.
‘‘All [D.C.] has is little pools that look like little bathtubs,” he said. ‘‘Here, you get something much better.”
For those trapped in the torturous purgatory between childhood and adult hood (i.e. adolescents), a kid’s birthday party can be a tricky thing. You don’t want to have too much fun, but the prospect of water slides makes you giddy. Just ask 15-year-old Derrick Prillman, a guest at the Melifonwu party.
‘‘There’s so many areas to play and relax,” Prillman, a District resident, said coolly during a pool-imposed 15-minute break. ‘‘I mostly just relax. ... But I guess I play too.”
Obiamaka Melifonwu, the birthday girl’s mother and the day’s busiest party coordinator, said pools offer a unique twist on children’s birthdays — one you won’t find at a local park or Chuck E. Cheese.
‘‘It’s like a playground in the water. That’s why we love it,” she said pointing, to hordes of kids climbing through tunnels and swinging on handle bars suspended above the lukewarm water. ‘‘It keeps everyone occupied. We need things like this.”
As party coordinator at the splash pool, Alana Plummer knows the challenges of preserving the pristine conditions with hundreds of kids and adults using the pool.
‘‘We get [trouble makers] sometimes,” she said, ‘‘but it’s never anything we can’t handle.”
There are strict rules for birthday parties, Plummer said. Absolutely no alcohol, no balloons and no outside food. Oh yeah, no candles either.
‘‘You can bring candles, but you can’t light them,” she said. ‘‘I guess you can fake blow ‘em out.”
Tara Eggleston, director at the Chillum pool, said it didn’t take long after she was hired by the pool to see why the facility’s phone lines were flooded with reservation requests during the summer months.
‘‘A lot of people don’t want their guests in the sun all day,” Eggleston said. ‘‘I think this is a nice option. There’s so much going on here to spark your senses. All this water flying all over the place and all these slides — it definitely gives an interesting twist to the normal, everyday birthday party.”
The splashing and the slides and the water were certainly on the minds of Brittany Gallman, 7, and Terri Wiggins, 9, guests at 2-year-old Zarriah’s birthday party.
‘‘You get to splash people, even if they get mad,” Wiggins said before sprinting into the shallowest part of the pool.
For Gallman, the slides were irresistible, even if the slippery ride was a serious adrenaline rush.
‘‘It gets scary,” Gallman said timidly.
The daredevil was spotted on a slide minutes later.
Rollingcrest-Chillum Splash Pool
6122 Sargent Road
Chillum, MD 20782
301-853-9115; TTY 301-445-4512
J. Franklyn Bourne Memorial Pool
6500 Calmos Street
Seat Pleasant, MD 20743
301-350-4422 (summer); 301-218-6700; TTY 301-218-6768
Allentown Fitness & Splash Park
7210 Allentown Road
Fort Washington, MD 20744
301-449-5566
301-449-5567
TTY 301-203-6030
North Barnaby Pool
5000 Wheeler Road
Oxon Hill, MD 20745
301-894-1150 (summer); 301-449-5566⁄7; TTY 301-203-6030
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