Its April already and our evenings are bright and sunny!

Swim season is coming upon us fast and everyone will be thinking of the events they want to sign up to over the summer months. 

It’s a wonderful time to plan and on behalf of the Sandycove Island Swim Club, I have a request of all of you to consider as part of this.

Organisers of the swim events go to great lengths to make sure everything goes according to schedule. We have been very lucky over the years, most of the time events go smoothly. This is primarily thanks to our volunteers.

Ironically, with the increase of swim events, is had become harder to find volunteers.

You may ask why? Well, the fantastic volunteers who do put their hands up every year, some several times a year, need support. Our water resource teams such as kayaking clubs and so on also need support. Its understandable that if we are all pulling on the goodwill of the same resources, they will get exhausted. We are at risk of losing them by overstretching them.

In order to address this, the Club Committee ask that each and every swimmer, volunteers to help for 1 out of every 5 swims they choose to do over the swimming season period. Volunteers will be awarded points for volunteering and rewarded accordingly at the end of the year. The specifics of this system will be sent out in a later email.

How to volunteer: You can do this by volunteering to timekeep, manage the pre race registration, tick off names of swimmers as they come out of the water, be a general observer (photographer!). An extra pair of hands and eyes is invaluable at a swim.

You can also volunteer to do safety on the water, by kayaking or going on a boat. It’s a great way to see a race and experience it from the other side. This is extremely beneficial to you as a swimmer, as you also have an opportunity to see how to efficiently navigate a race and get the advantage over the competition!

You can also volunteer a friend/ relative in your place provided they are over 18 and in the case of kayaking, competent in the water.

If you have a kayak and wish to swim, please volunteer the kayak – many people would like to kayak but don’t have one.

We also need to look after our groups who volunteer and support us. The RNLI for example, many swims raise money for their cause so they are generally well looked after. Kayaking clubs, in particular Phoenix Kayaking Club – can be supported by signing up for one of their kayaking courses :

http://www.phoenixkayakclub.com/

I strongly encourage anyone with a love of water to do this. Not only do you learn a new skill on the water, to enjoy it from another perspective, but you will play a pivotal role in our volunteer process. Its also a nice way to thank Pheonix for providing so much support for our events. 

So please support each other and sign up to volunteer. You can let us know what event(s)you are willing to volunteer for, but if there are too many for one event and not enough for another you may be asked to help at another event. All within reason of course!

The list of Munster swims will be going our shortly so take a look and let us or the swim organiser know which event you would like to help with.

Sincere thanks

Liz Buckley