Local 96-year-old teaching others importance of staying active through passion of swimming

CHARLOTTE — A local swim instructor is still finding ways to teach his love of swimming, even at 96 years old.

Channel 9′s Elsa Gillis went to a swim class at Marion Diehl Recreation Center, where Charles Alley is teaching the importance of staying active while doing so himself.

“Sometimes I feel like this is the best-kept secret around,” Alley said.

He teaches the deep-water, low-impact exercise class every Monday and Friday, something he’s done for over 20 years. Alley and his wife started taking the class at 75 years old. Once the instructor left, he took over.

“Why is it important to me? I guess I’ve always done it, Alley joked. “I’ve often said the worst thing you can do is get up in the morning with nothing to do.”

No matter what Alley does, he just wants to make sure people understand the importance of staying active.

“You gotta stay active, if you sit down you become inactive, and then it’s harder to do anything,” Alley said.

>> In the video at the top of the page, Gillis learns what excites Alley about teaching swimming lessons.

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