SWIMMING AT SWAFFHAM- HOME PAGE

Once again I must begin with a very big thank you to all you loyal members for continuing to support us with your membership subscriptions and those of you who are able to attend our fund raising events putting your hands in your pockets to buy coffee, cakes etc. This year SWAFFHAM GLASS, a Swaffham based Company, sponsored the cost of 1000 badges and we have been selling those for a Ł1 each at various outlets and I wear mine with pride (particularly when I go swimming in Dereham!) It is remarkable that after nearly 12 years, with no Pool in sight, you still maintain that effort and commitment.
As I have said many times it may not be to our benefit, but we continue our campaign for our children and grandchildren so that they will be encouraged to stay in their home town. More new homes are being planned for Swaffham so it is even more important to provide good leisure facilities here. I have lost count of the number of times visitors to Swaffham have said "I see you have a Leisure Centre here". Travelling into Swaffham from the Brandon they pass Hamonds High School and the "Leisure Centre" and are very disappointed when they learn there is no Pool. When we get our Pool perhaps we should insist on a change of name for the building at Hamonds. Any suggestions??

One of our other loyal sponsors WAITROSE are running a new "Community Matters" programme. Every time you make a purchase, however small, you will be given a token to put into a bin for a local a Charity/ Group etc. A total of Ł1000 is available to share each month between three local community groups. At the end of the month the tokens are counted and the ratio per group is converted into a share of the Ł1000. Our month begins on the 31st. August so I ask you to encourage your friends and family to put their tokens into the SPA bin. The more tokens in our bin, the more money we shall get. This is a tremendous opportunity to boost our funds and I thank WAITROSE for including SPA in this programme.

Draw tickets are now on sale, please contact any Committee member if you would like some books to sell amoung your friends. The Draw will take place, once again, at our Grand Draw Evening of entertainment and buffet on 7th November in the Assembly Rooms. It was a great occasion last year and I hope as many of you as possible will come along and enjoy an evening of good entertainment, food and dancing.

Your Board of Directors are now in discussion with an international company who are looking at Swaffham to build a Pool and Gym on the site which has been set aside for us. This seems to be the best way forward and we hopeto convince them that providing such a facility here will be a viable commercial possibility. Keep your fingers crossed, none of these negotiations happen quickly, but we still continue the battle.

FINALLY - CONGRATULATIONS to our terrific olympian athletes. For such a small Country our haul of medals is amazing, it makes you proud to be British. What wonderful role models for our aspiring athletes for the 2012 Games. Rebecca Adlington, our double gold medal swimmer, has my utmost admiration, and the long distance swimmers (silver & bronze) just took my breath away. What an incentive to the powers that be to provide more good training opportunities. With a Pool in Swaffham, who knows, we may produce a future olympic champion. So once again, well done to all the track athletes, cyclists, yachtsmen, rowers, swimmers ............

I will not mention the weather, but I hope you all managed to enjoy the Summer. I have given up having holidays during the season and I am off in later in the year to search for a bit of sunshine.

My best regards to you all, Marian