BY LOU VARRICCHIO

When civil engineer Dan Allen, Sr., started Allen Pools & Spas back in 1957, the world was a very different place and he didn’t even know how to swim.

In ‘57, automobiles sprouted decorative fins, President Eisenhower began his second term in the White House, and the Brooklyn Dodgers baseball team played its final game in New York before moving west to L.A.

While America’s hot tub-spa love affair had yet to start in ‘57, Vermonters were loving the post-war lifestyle with swimming pools a growing part of it, along with backyard barbecue grills.

“Since our establishment in 1957, we have sold, installed, and maintained hundreds of swimming pools and thousands of spas throughout Vermont, western New Hampshire and northeastern New York,” according to Allen Pools & Spas spokesperson Shara DiGrazia.

Today, owner Ed Allen runs three stores (in Rutland, Williston and White River Junction) and is involved in many community activities, especially the fight against breast cancer.

“We started focusing on breast cancer a few years ago after Ed lost his sister Kerrie Clifford to breast cancer,” DiGrazia said. “She was well known to the Susan G. Komen people, always a part of the events and was labeled Affiliate’s Survivor of the Year in 2007.”

DiGrazia said that ever since he lost Kerrie, Allen has wanted to do everything possible to help battle breast cancer and help others affected by it.