(KMJ) – After almost 60 years in business, the Jan Thomas Swim School in Clovis is closing. Jan Thomas says she and her daughter (who she runs the business with) made the decision to close midway through this summer, which is the school’s 59th year in existence. She says they felt it was simply time – after training more than 500 teachers and teaching more than 61,000 kids to swim.
“I turned 80 this year,” said Thomas on Monday. “We have a thriving business and we never want to say ‘no’ to these wonderful parents and kids – but it just became the right time [to close].”
Thomas says she doesn’t want to sell the school, but encourages anyone to do what she did – going around teaching swim lessons until she could afford her own facility.
“Now we’ve been out here at this larger facility for 46 years and so – [anyone else] can do it too,” said Thomas. “I’ll support them. I’ll tell them, ‘I’ll send you thousands of students!’ But I would hope that someone would do what I’ve done.”
The final day of business for the Jan Thomas Swim School is on Thursday, August 3rd. Thomas says she is coming up with a plan to help other businesses in the community.
You can see the official announcement of closure here.
(Photo: Jan Thomas Swim School Facebook Page)
