The Salvation Army Kerrville Kroc: 15,500 kids through the pool this summer — and 3,000 had never been there before

The Kerrville Kroc Center is recognizable from the road. The big building on the hill. The water park. What most residents don’t know is that it is also a functioning church, a free dental clinic, a subsidized afterschool program, a disaster case management hub, and the reason 113 Kerr County first responders have somewhere to decompress after their shifts.

Ashley Phillips, Major Phil Swyers, and front desk supervisor and volunteer coordinator Bonnie Gates appeared Friday on Lead Live’s Nonprofit Week to describe an institution that suffers from what Phillips called an identity problem — residents drive by, see the size of the building, and assume it is not for them.

Major Swyers, who serves as pastor alongside his wife Captain Rebecca Swyers and leads Sunday morning services and Wednesday evening family programs, closed the segment with a number that reframed the building entirely.

“This past summer, with the help of four churches in the city, we had over 15,500 kids come through our pool,” he said. “And 3,000 of them had never been to the Kroc before.”

The reason the number is so high: Kerrville’s municipal Olympic pool could not open this summer. The Kroc stepped in, partnering with the city to charge families just $1 per visit — ensuring the community still had a safe place to swim. Three thousand first-time Kroc visitors walked in through the pool and discovered everything else.

That “everything else” is substantial. The free volunteer dental clinic operates every other Wednesday in the Salvation Army building — run by local dentists who donate their time and their staff. It was the Kroc’s very first community service program when the center opened 15 years ago and remains one of its least publicized. The Kroc Academy afterschool childcare program buses children directly from their schools. The social service building down the hill — separate from the main facility — houses case managers who are currently working daily with survivors of both the July 4, 2025, and July 16, 2026, floods.

The center also hosts Tivy alumni reunions, children’s birthday parties complete with bounce houses, and corporate training sessions for groups including KPUB, McDonald’s, the H.E. Butt Foundation, and local Rotary, Lions, and Kiwanis clubs. The organization boasts 12,000 email subscribers and more than 10,000 social media followers — numbers Phillips noted make co-branding with the Kroc a smart marketing investment for local businesses.

Major Swyers offered a perspective on flood recovery that has become something of a guiding principle for the local recovery community.

“Disaster recovery is going to take a while,” he said. “It is a long-term process… and I don’t know that an individual has ever totally restored.”

The families of those who lost their lives in the storms, he noted quietly, will carry that grief for the rest of their lives.

Upcoming:

The 39th Annual Circle of Service Tablescape Banquet transforms the Kroc gym into a high-art dining room through a community design competition, with Captain Rebecca Swyers performing as a featured vocalist. James Avery Jewelry is the presenting sponsor. Cartwell’s Catering is preparing the meal. Tickets and tables: kerrvillecroc.org or (830) 285-9945. Silent auction item donations are being accepted.

The August membership deal ends this month: bring 12 canned goods and the $25 initiation fee is waived. Couch to 5K runs Aug. 30 through Oct. 23. Fall water park pricing begins on Saturdays through Oct. 31 — $10 for a single day, or a Gold Pass at $45 for nine visits. Thanksgiving Day Feeds return this year after being catered out last year due to the flood — volunteers will gather to debone turkeys and make stuffing from scratch, with Meals on Wheels channels identifying homebound seniors for delivery.