The franchise location is part of a higher calling for new owners and lifelong swimmers Rebecca and Paul Sinopoli. After nearly three decades moving around with the Air Force, the couple wanted something more than government work once Paul retired from military service.
“Paul just didn’t want to go back into the civil service,” said wife Rebecca. “So we started looking at other opportunities and came across Aqua-Tots.”
If the stores does well, they would like open another in the region.
The mission of the company is aligned with the family’s core values, Sinopoli said. She’s always been an advocate for children learning how to swim, she said, especially after her stepsister lost a child to drowning nearly two decades ago.
“I’m extremely passionate about children knowing how to swim,” she said. “If we can just save one life we’ve done our job.”
With drowning as the leading cause of injury death for children ages 1 to 4, the retired airman and his wife are taking aim at Ohio’s unintentional drowning rate, which they say is the third highest in the nation. Their work is already underway, with 134 families and 178 students involved so-far.
The company began in Mesa, Arizona in 1991 and started franchising in 2005. Now with around 40 franchises across the country, the company is expanding internationally with locations in Kuwait and Turkey, and locations coming soon in Vietnam, United Kingdom and United Arab Emirates. This is the company’s first Ohio location.
The business will have a grand opening May 3 at the start of National Water Safety Month. For more information, visit aquatots-dayton.com or call (937) 688-3554.
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