We are the Borough of Waltham Forest Gators Swimming Club, affectionately known in the swimming world as GATORS. We are a non-profit club run by volunteers and we are raising money to keep our swim club going during the Covid crisis to get all our young swimmers back in the pool and training again safely within the government and Swim England guidelines.
Gators swim club have been teaching children to swim in our local community for over 50 years and we are proud of our rich history of producing top County, Regional, National and International level swimmers.
Daniel Fogg, Jaime King and Martin Harris all started their swimming careers with us at Gators and went on to represent Britain at the Olympics. Other young swimmers have gone on to swimming programs around the country. Phoebe Griffiths continued her journey from Gators to Ellesmere Titans and has competed for England and Team GB going on to represent GB in both open water, and pool swimming at International level.
For two years in a row our Open Water National Team Amy Allison, Ella Remyn, Jodie Hill and Stephanie Pagan, to name a few, have won the Under 18 Sports Team of the Year at the Waltham Forest Sports Awards and Joe Garfield won Gold earlier this year at Essex County Championships for 200 Fly aged only 14! We have many success stories and currently hold County records, we are extremely proud of all our incredible swimmers.
We have taught hundreds of local children to swim offering structured and progressive aquatic skills classes and competitive swimming training for swimmers of all ability levels. We currently have 220 members ranging from age 4 to age 72!
Our club is dedicated to keeping our children fit and active in a safe environment.
We encourage our swimmers to pursue their swimming careers with us and when children participate in individual or team swimming sports, they receive positive opportunities for learning sportsmanship, working toward goals and functioning as part of a team which develops self-esteem, good mental health and a positive outlook.
Some of our swimmers have gone on to have their first jobs with us as coaches!
We are an important part of our local community and hope to continue teaching these life skills and providing swimming opportunities for many more years to come.
Why we need your help:
Since March all our swimmers have been unable to train as the pools closed down due to the Covid 19 Pandemic. This has been a very difficult time for our swimmers some of whom train up to 14 hours per week and were training hard to defend their titles and qualify for County, Regional and National times.
We have watched this community come together in remarkable ways over the last five months. During the lockdown our swimmers and dedicated coaches showed incredible resilience in trying to continue their training by cycling, running, live online workouts and many many more different ways to keep up their fitness levels till our return to the pool. In the same spirit we want to do our very best to get them back into the pool and doing what they love best.
Our operating costs have increased due to social distancing measures and limited pool times. We are a charity and are run solely by volunteers. We simply do not have the financial reserves needed to get us through a crisis of this duration. A large percentage of our income is generated through our swimming galas which have all been cancelled for this year along with all our other fundraising activities that would normally keep us afloat.
We need your help so we can get through this crisis and help all our swimmers get back into the pool as soon as possible.
Please help and join me to support this amazing team of wonderful and dedicated athletes, coaches, volunteers and families.
Your contribution allows us to continue to be a part of our community for years to come. Every penny counts no matter how small or large.
Thank you on behalf of our club and all our swimmers
Borough of Waltham Forest Gators Swim Club
https://uk.teamunify.com/team/lrebwfgsc/page/home
swimming@bwfsc-gators.org.uk
Swim England affiliated Club
Swim Mark
Charity Number : 1185492
If you would like to join our club please email our head coach Harley Hicks at gatorstrials@gmail.com
Thank you