Your Help is Needed
Our summer swimming league is possible through the efforts of all of our parents. At Swim Meets, parents serve as place judges, timers, scorekeepers, and officials. Information describing each of these will be shared so that every parent has the opportunity to contribute to the success of our team. Your help is greatly appreciated, and necessary. In addition to meets, there are opportunities for parents to help with special events. This includes keeping up to date records of swimmers’ times, planning special events (such as our end of the season banquet), and hosting events. It is a fun way to support the team and get to know more of our swimmers’ parents.
Message from Gina Snell, Volunteer Coordinator
Summer is here, and it is going to be a great year for swim team! I’d like to introduce myself, my name is Gina Snell and my son, Jared, is starting his third season with the swim team. I am the volunteer coordinator for the team.
As with all sports and activities that your children are involved in, we need volunteers to help make our meets run smoothly. We are asking that someone from each family volunteer for at least two meets. It can be mom, dad, grandma, or granddad, even an aunt or an uncle. If your child is at the meet then someone got them there, and we welcome them to represent your family by volunteering.
So, how can you help? If you want to be on your feet and in the action, check out these volunteer opportunities:
- Place Judge – One of the most important positions. Watch to see who places 1st, 2nd, 3rd, or 4th place. Raise your flag for the place you are watching for, get the swimmer’s name, and walk to the place recorder to have the swimmer’s name recorded for the meet. You never know, you just might be watching the next Michael Phelps!
- Timer – Time the swimmer in your lane. We provide the stop watch, so no counting is required! When the horn blows start timing, when the swimmer touches the wall stop the watch, and record the time. We even provide the clip board and a pen!
If you would rather sit back watch all the excitement from afar have a seat and help out with one of these volunteer opportunities:
- Place recorder – Record the name of the place winner for each race as given to you by the place judges. Only requirement is legible handwriting.
- Scorer – Keep the score for the meet. You will know if we are winning or trailing behind. If you can add, this job is for you.
- Ribbon Distributor – Hand out ribbons to all the winners at our home meets! ONLY TWO SPOTS REMAINING!
For those of you with little ones – We need herders! (If anyone can think of a better name please let me know.) We need four people to watch over the younger swimmers at each meet. Amy Hungerford and Lisa Hamilton have agreed do this for each and every meet. This helps thing run smoothly because they will learn every child’s name and the children will know who find when they have a question. So, what we need now are two additional people to assist Amy and Lisa at each meet. If you want to sign up for the season let me know ASAP, otherwise we will sign up two assistants per meet that will change each time. All swimmers 10 and under will sit in one area at every meet, so they need to bring a towel, a snack, and something to keep them occupied while they wait for their turn to swim. All parents are welcome to sit with or near them, but we need to keep them in one area so that we are not searching all over the pool area for swimmers when it is their time to swim. Herders will have a heat sheet and all you have to do is line the children up and get them to the correct end of the pool for their heat. The coaches will get them in the correct lanes.
I would like to thank Lynn Goettee who has volunteered to be our starter/announcer at our four home meets. Also, a very special thanks to Erik Skow, Greg Tabor, Kelli Tabor, and Kristen Vogt who are taking time out of their busy schedules to take classes so that they can be our four stroke and turn judges. This is not an easy job and we thank you for your commitment to our team.
In addition, we should thank our team representatives Patti Jones and Helenia Hosey who keep us up to date with all things going on with the league. Kathy Hilemshiem is serving as our treasurer this year. Check our new website designed by Sandra Meier. And last but not least, Lisa Hamilton and Nancy Nellis are planning our end of season banquet. Thank you ladies for taking on these tasks.
Volunteering is fun and it is something that we should all do! Talk to a couple of your friends and decide on a night to do it together or sign up on a night that is good for you and make some new friends. Now, if you still feel that you can not volunteer let me know. I charge $100 per meet paid in cash in advance to fill in for you. I say this in jest. Everyone is busy and our time is important to all of us, but if you really want to take me up on it give me a call!
I would like to have all volunteers scheduled by the time of our first meet on Tuesday, June 7th, so check your calendars and shoot me an e-mail or give me a call. I will start calling those of you that I do not hear from very soon.
Thank you in advance for your help! Let’s make a Splash!
Gina Snell
PFST Volunteer Coordinator
email: GSNELL@sc.rr.com