It was a ‘hellish’ week for the Blue Devils Summer Swim Club recently as they had some rather challenging work-outs together with lots of fun activities such as beach boot camp, hikes, paintball and a private showing of Harry Potter, finishing up with the traditional pancake breakfast.
Swimmers who attended all Hell Week practices received the coveted Hell Week award, which this year was a T-shirt worn by all proudly. Then it was onto the fun awards where each swimmer picks another swimmer in their group and gives them a small memento of the swim season. Some very creative and intuitive gifts were given and received.
Then came the swim-a-thon with 28 swimmers doing lengths in the outdoor pool, (33m) with a percentage of donations given to L'Arche, an organization helping disabled adults.
Blue Devils' president Christine Helpard presented Bernard Guay of L'Arche with a cheque for $944.90. The top fundraisers in each group were Gabrielle Guay in Junior/Development and Robin Jahnke in Intermediate/Senior, with honourable mentions for fundraising over $100 to Kamil Guay, Douglas Lightfoot and Kyle Crewe. Two first-year swimmers, Kamil Guay age eight swam 34 lengths and Douglas Lightfoot age 10 swam 78 lengths.
The Blue Devils Summer swimmers are now tapering for Regionals, which will be held in Nanaimo where the top three swimmers in each event will go onto Provincials. "We wish them all the best," a club spokesperson said.
For more information on the Blue Devils Summer Swim Club go to www .bluedevilswimclub.com.