*Original publication date: July 3, 2025*

On Friday, June 20, 2025, YWCA Cortland and Catherine Bertini held a special celebration to honor the legacy of Cathy’s parents, Fulvio and Ann Bertini.

Fulvio and Ann were the driving forces behind creating the very first competitive girls’ swim team in Cortland in 1962! A bit controversial for its time, the purpose of the girls’ swim team, named the Dolphins, was to “help develop the young ladies in mind and body and to teach them the spirit of wholesome competition.” (Quote from an undated newspaper article titled “YWCA Swim Team Program Discussed at Parents Meet”.)

To honor this empowering history, Ms. Bertini created the Bertini Pool Legacy Fund in 2024 to help sustain YWCA’s pool for generations of girls and women to come. At the June 20 celebration, she said,

“It’s my great honor, to honor Fulvio and Ann Bertini for having had the foresight and the guts to say we need to do this, we’re thinking outside the box, we’re not going to take no for an answer, we’re not going to take inaction for an answer. We want to stand under principal that girls as well as boys deserve the opportunity to be competitive and we want to offer that opportunity in our community.”

Read full remarks from the June 20 celebration program in the links below. Click to contribute to the Bertini Pool Legacy Fund.

June 20, 2025, Celebration Program in YWCA Cortland’s Multi-Purpose Room

 

   

*Content included in this post was accurate on the date it was published. All information and pricing are subject to change without notice.