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  • Eretta Pettit swims laps in the pool at the YMCA in Port Arthur. Morgan Jones

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June 6, 2011

Pettit beats heat with daily swim at YMCA

Darragh Doiron The Port Arthur News

PORT ARTHUR — Eretta Pettit pops out of bed, puts on her swim suit and heads to the Port Arthur YMCA. She’s pretty regular about her eight laps.

“I’ve been doing it 15 years. It’s the most important thing I do. I believe in exercising the body.

Swimming is fun, but it’s a workout, too, Pettit said.

“When you get to the other end, you’re out of breath,” she said.

She developed her watery ways when her mother would take her and her siblings out to a pool at a park off Gulfway Drive. It was crowded on top, so she developed her own technique for more space.

“I started swimming under water when I was 5 years old,” Pettit said.

Eating the rainbow is another Pettit particular.

“I believe in buying healthy food,” she said, reminding that nutritionists advocate enjoying a range of colorful, vitamin-packed vegetables.

The bright orange of carrots are Pettit’s favorite, but there’s more to her plan.

“I avoid beef and red meat,” she said.

Pettit says people have told her she’s an inspiration to other seniors striving to feel good and stay healthy.

Eleanor Luttrull, a former Y employee, nominated Pettit as a Senior on the Go.

“She is awesome,” Luttrull said. “She goes in there and that’s all she does is swim. She’s a cancer survivor and she knows that exercise very important. She can be bummed out and she’ll walk into the Y and do her swim and she’ll leave a different person. The Y is like a second home to her.”

Pettit attends Church of Christ in Port Arthur.

To nominate a Senior on the Go, contact darraghdoiron@panews.com

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