400 MAKE SWIM TEAM'S CHRISTMAS HOME TOUR

JACKSON -- Jackson swim team home tour chairwoman Dreda McElrath estimates 400 people went through this year's tour, which was helped greatly by Sunday's clear, cool weather.

"Everybody that went through loved our tour this year," McElrath said, saying she had talked to a number of people who take the tour every year. "We had two new homes and we had two homes with a lot of history."

The home tour included the Mark and Stephanie Cummings home, 3502 Dana Drive; Susie and Tom Kohm's house, 501 N. Russell; Ellen and John Lorberg's home, 395 Stonehaven Lane; and Jackie and Doug Seabaugh's home, 433 Shady Brook. Plus the Zion Lutheran Church of Gordonville provided a chance for entertainment and shopping. It was the second year the tour has used a church.

McElrath said the tour was also successful because she might have lined up some new homes, and another church, already for next year. She and the three other members of the tour committee usually start in June lining up homes for the tour.

The $1,500 to $2,000 raised through the tour will go to supporting the Jackson Swim Team. Not affiliated with the school system, the parents committee has to raise the money for equipment.

McElrath said the committee will have to meet next week to decide where the money will go, but added the starting blocks are in need of attention.

"And of course none of what we need is cheap," she said.

The money raised through this and other events is used to pay the coaches' salaries as well.

The Jackson Swim Team has been sponsoring a home tour for 22 years. The team has a summer and winter season and will use the Cape Municipal Pool for meets during the winter.

McElrath won't know how successful the tour was until she counts the tickets old.