City Pool Complex Named for Former Vice President Joe Biden
Biden was a youth lifeguard at the former Prices Run Park pool (today known as Brown Burton Winchester Park); the pool facility was dedicated today as the Joseph R. Biden Jr. Aquatic Center
Former Vice President Joe Biden today returned to the pool facility where he was a lifeguard as a young man for a ceremony naming the Brown Burton Winchester Park pool and poolhouse complex as the Joseph R. Biden, Jr., Aquatic Center. Biden has spoken often about how important it was for him, as a lifeguard at the pool, to build relationships and develop concepts that served him well throughout his career of public service.
The City of Wilmington, largely through the efforts of 3rd District Council Member Zanthia Oliver and former 3rd District Council Member Darius Brown, decided to commemorate the former Vice President’s early years at the pool facility by naming the entire complex in his honor. Through signage unveiled today at the front and rear of the pool bathhouse facility, the complex will now be known as the Joseph R. Biden, Jr., Aquatic Center. The facility was renovated several years ago to become a LEED-certified environmentally reconfigured facility, one of the City’s first efforts to reduce the government’s carbon gas emissions by 20% by the year 2020.
Wilmington Mayor Mike Purzycki hosted today’s ceremony which included remarks by Council Member Oliver as the district representative, Governor John Carney, Senator Margaret Rose Henry, who also represents the area, and Delaware’s Congresswoman Lisa Blunt Rochester. Also attending the ceremony was Senator Robert Marshall, Representative Helene Keeley and Richard ‘Mouse’ Smith, former NAACP President, who met Joe Biden when he was a lifeguard, leading to a lifelong friendship. City Council Members Va'Shun Turner, Ciro Adams, and Rysheema Dixon were also present for the ceremony at the 26th and Locust Street park.
In addition to the new building signage, a small plaque was affixed to one of the pool's lifeguard chairs designating the chair as the, “Joseph R. Biden, Jr., Lifeguard Chair” ensuring that the values and interpersonal skills developed by the former Vice President during his time as a lifeguard will be memorialized forever at the City pool complex.
John Rago
Deputy Chief of Staff for Policy and Communications
Office of Mayor Michael S. Purzycki
Joseph R. Biden Jr. Aquatic Center FULL VIDEO
