City of Saline Announces Rec Center Capital Campaign and Aquatics Scholarship Fund in Honor of the Late TJ Johnston

(This news release is from the City of Saline)

The City of Saline, specifically, its Rec Center Sustainability Taskforce, has announced a new capital campaign and scholarship fund to benefit aquatics programming in the greater Saline area.

This new initiative is named in honor of the late Tom “TJ” Johnston – a longtime swim instructor and volunteer in the Saline community.

TJ was born and raised in Ann Arbor. He began his professional career working in broadcasting before transitioning to commercial/residential development. A lifelong competitive swimmer, TJ took great pride in being swim instructor for nearly 25 years.

“TJ was one of a kind, a once in a lifetime type of friend, mentor, and cheerleader. He cared deeply about the Saline Rec Center and about his swim students. He had so much life and work experience, he was not shy about sharing his knowledge. TJ was not only a swim instructor, but he really got to know each of the families of his students,” said Carla Scruggs, Director of Saline Parks & Recreation.

Carla added, “He is missed dearly, but we are excited to be able to preserve his memory by creating a scholarship fund in his name. I hope everyone that was taught, was a parent of a student, worked with or knew of TJ, would consider a monetary gift toward the scholarship fund. The money will be used to provide swim lesson scholarships to children from families in need. This is such a wonderful way to preserve the memory of TJ, I’m 100 perrcent sure he would love this idea. It would have brought a tear to his eye.”

In addition to the scholarship fund portion of this capital campaign, additional funds raised will provide seed money for remodeling the aquatics center at the Saline Rec Center, located at 1866 Woodland Drive in the City of Saline.

Greg Hohenberger, member of the Saline Rec Center Sustainability Taskforce & Director of Leisure Services for Canton Township added, “TJ was a one of a kind man that led a storied life, but was never happier than when he was teaching kids to swim. He loved passing on his joy for swimming.” 

Those interested in contributing to the Tom "TJ" Johnston Scholarship Fund, they can visit
http://cityofsaline.org/parks and tap or click on the link to donate through PayPal.

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