Who are we?
We are a friendly, local swimming club based in Medway, Kent. We teach and develop water-based skills to promote swimming to people of all ages and backgrounds within our community.
We are a growing, successful, non-profit competitive club that encourages community involvement in swimming. Our aim is to create swimmers for life. We pride ourselves on being a caring, supportive environment where every member can thrive and reach their full potential. Our swimmers are at the heart of everything we do.
The club currently has over 100 active members aged between 6 and 82. We offer structured, coached training sessions for various groups, from beginners to competitive swimmers, including a masters group. Our swimmers compete at county, regional, and national levels, while others pursue open water, marathon swimming, and triathlon. We strive for both excellence and enjoyment, supporting each swimmer to achieve their individual goals.
We understand that not everyone wants to compete. We create a welcoming atmosphere where all swimmers can feel part of the club and enjoy the physical and mental health benefits of swimming without pressure to compete.
Our members primarily come from the Maidstone/Medway borough, including areas facing social and economic challenges. Our squads include people from diverse ethnic backgrounds and some with disabilities.
We aim to develop well-rounded young athletes through a stimulating, challenging, and competitive environment. Our dedicated coaches and volunteers support our swimmers in reaching their full potential
Why are we crowdfunding?
The cost of living crisis as meant we have faced a number of challenges, both as a club and for swimming as a sport in the community. Increased fees for pool hire, Maintenance and a gap in new joiners because of the impact of cost of living across families’ means we have to do more to keep swimmers in the pool and help those wishing to get into the sport.
Swim.org recently reported that 1 in 4 eleven-year-old children leave primary school unable to competently and confidently swim a required 25m in a variety of strokes or perform safe self-rescue, we want to work with the community to change this, to make water safer for all.
We are committed to raising the money needed to enhance our swimmer's performance and experience whilst gaining confidence, critical life skills and providing a healthy lifestyle choice physically and mentally, in a safe and welcoming environment.
For us it is simple - we want people to be able to train with their friends, maintain a high level of fitness & to achieve their goals of being the best they can be. We have the most dedicated and resilient people and we don’t want to see our club suffer because of financial impacts out of our control. We must succeed to support our communities next generation of swimmers.
Swimming gives many transferable skills:
- Perseverance
- Dedication
- Coordination
- time-keeping
- confidence
We are aiming to bridge the gap between the fees our members pay and the costs of pool hire, coaching and training our volunteer coaches and swimming officials. We have some terrific coaches and we want to support & retain them at the club.
Our desire is stronger than ever to promote our sport, so that others can fall in love with swimming.
How we’ll spend the money raised
The money raised will go towards:
- Paying our pool hire.
- Coaching costs to ensure we continue to provide the best possible coaching to our swimmers and the community.
- Replacing broken training equipment.
- Training for our coaches and volunteers.
- Establishing a hardship grant for swimmers whose families are affected by the cost of living crisis.
- Hosting community swimming events and cost effective learn to swim programmes for those in the community
We want to promote the benefits and life skills of swimming to all. The cost of living crisis, means families have to manage every penny. We want to promote swimming to the whole community at this difficult time. .
Community Impact
We aim to support children and adults equally to ensure they can enjoy the water safely. By providing affordable swimming lessons in a not-for-profit way, we can appeal to the whole community. Mobilise those who feel isolated, need to gain fitness, encourage teamwork, and mobility skills
How you can play your part
There are four simple ways to help us reach our target, and make this project a reality.
1. Make a pledge. Don’t delay if you’re going to support us because momentum is key to our success!
2. Spread the word. Share our project on your social media pages and tell the world to get behind us! The more people we reach, the more support we will get.
3. Offer rewards. Get involved if you are a local business by donating things we can offer to our supporters. We will give you a shout out!
4. Fundraise for us. If you want to run your own fundraiser – maybe a sponsored activity or similar – use the 'contact project' button at the top of our page to let us know. Setting up your own page only takes a few minutes and you won’t need any bank details. Just a fun idea!