Deltaville group celebrates effort behind creating community pool

by Larry Chowning –

For Middlesex County youth growing up in the late 1960s, the Christian Youth Unlimited (CYU) was a dynamic interdenominational organization that had 60-plus teenagers as members who were from all over the county.

The group was started in 1967 by David G. Brown Jr., a young minister of Philippi Christian Church. In June 1968, two members of the CYU lost their brother in a tragic accident during Deltaville’s annual Independence Day parade. Ten-year-old Ricky Taylor was killed when he fell from a float at the end of the parade.

This year former members of the group celebrated the 55th anniversary of the start of the CYU by having a party/picnic at the pool on Saturday, Aug. 27. The purpose of the event was a homecoming for many to recall the efforts made to raise funds to build the pool but to also let the community know the pool still has financial needs.

Betsy (Glascock) Hudgins who was president of the youth organization in 1969 when the pool opened and is still active in the operation of the pool, said costs have gone up due to increased chemical expenses and new minimum wage requirements for lifeguards. As CYU members and spouses, now in their 60s and 70s, walked through the pool gate, Hudgins had a donation jar in her hand stuffed full of money.

“Raising the money for the pool didn’t seem that hard then, but now it seems like a miracle,” said Hudgins. “When I see my grandchildren swimming in that pool, it makes me realize we did something very special. We were all just a bunch of kids.

“It shows you what can be done when people work together!”

“When Ricky died, it solidified the group,” said Brown. “We probably had 20 or 25 kids in the youth group when he died. After that a lot of the kids were grief stricken and upset, so we decided to do something in his memory and then the group really began to grow,” he said.