Real Estate Survey Next Step in Goldfish Research

Alison Horrocks is a mom, a sales executive and the potential proprietor of a future Goldfish Swim School. She is the person behind the letter recently distributed to parents at a variety of area schools attempting to gather feedback from residents about whether such a business would be utilized.

Horrocks moved to the City of Grosse Pointe last May with her husband and children from Ferndale. Her children took swim lessons at the Birmigham location of Goldfish, which she said is routine for families on that side of the metro area.

Although there are a variety of swimming options in the Grosse Pointes through the residential parks, private clubs and places like the Neighborhood Club, Horrocks said there were few viable options for her as a fulltime working mom--a realization that birthed the idea of researching the possibility of opening a Goldfish on the east side.

And so began the research.

Horrocks previously worked as a social worker and has been looking to getting back into working with kids and the community, she said in a telephone interview this week.

Opening a Goldfish Swim School, she said, would do just that. Additionally it would offer parents another option for swim lessons--perpetual swim lessons that she said her own children benefited greatly from.

A short online survey that she began in an attempt to gather feedback from the community remains open for those wishing to take it, she said. The feedback spiked last week after it was reported on Patch, she said.

Now, as she and her husband continue exploring the idea, they will begin evaluating and surveying real estate, she said. They want to find out what options are available and viable for such an operation, she said.

Feedback about the amount of swim lesson opportunities already offered in the Pointes has not necessarily been discouraging, she said, explaining how she recalls receiving compliments about her own children's skills in the water from peers parents shortly after beginning at the Birmingham location.

Other parents would constantly ask her where her children learned to swim and how they became so comfortable in the water, she said, highlighting the impact perpetual lessons have upon the skill level of children.

Goldfish, she said, would be just another option for parents in the area. After moving to the City, she began meeting parents who already made the drive to Birmingham for swim lessons, she said, which was another factor that led her to research and consider opening a location in the Pointes/St. Clair Shores area.