Competing Indiana Businesses ‘Pool’ Their Resources To Save Indianapolis Great-Grandma’s Dream Home

When I picture my dream home, it definitely has an in-ground swimming pool. That was always Kitty Smith's vision, except she wanted to share it with her 29 great-grandchildren. Once she had that dream home at age 80, it quickly turned into a homeowner's nightmare.

The Money Pit

After hearing about this story from the Indianapolis, Indiana television station WTHR, Tom Hank's movie The Money Pit from the early 1980s came to mind. Thankfully, Kitty Smith's entire home wasn't sinking her bank account, but the swimming pool certainly was.

Sink or Swim

80-year-old Kitty Smith talked with her local news reporter about the sinking pool, and how it was not covered by her homeowner's insurance policy. It was going to cost over $80,000 to tear out the concrete mess and start from scratch with a whole new pool. After seeing the story, the owner of Automatic Pool Covers, Inc. contacted several other pool-related companies in the Indianapolis area and put together a plan to build Ms. Smith a new swimming pool at no charge!

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No Competition Here

A lot of the local companies that came together to build the new pool just so happen to be competitors in the South Indy area. Any and all differences were put aside, and the companies all donated their time, materials, and everything else needed to have the family's pool ready by Memorial Day Weekend.

Mission Accomplished

Several other local companies heard about the story, and pitched in to help. Kitty Smith's grandchildren and great-grandchildren will be getting swim lessons, and they have all new patio furniture too. What about Great-Grandma Kitty...Will she be out there swimming too? Oh, she has already played some Marco Polo in her heated pool! You can see that in the second video below.

Original Story From WTHR

The Big Reveal of the New Swimming Pool