By Jennifer Kent
BEERWAH is currently without a swim club after the Beerwah Splash Swim Club announced last month it would be unable to continue operating this season.
In a statement posted to the club’s Facebook page last month after a special meeting was held earlier in the year, the volunteer-run committee shared they were no longer able to continue: “After discussion with Swimming Queensland, we have decided to leave the club dormant at this stage with the aim to form a new committee in due course, possibly in the New Year with new affiliation and roles to then be elected”.
With uncertainty surrounding whether swim clubs can open at two other local pools, currently without management, it leaves those who wish to join a club forced to travel away from the hinterland to do so.
“Without a club, there is no pathway for swimmers in our community to participate locally in a swim club neither as a recreational club swimmer nor as a competitive club swimmer,” one member stated.
“Our club had very good competitive swimmers at state level, who have now had to join other clubs on the coast to continue their swimming pathway.”
Committee member Andrew Lange shared that it was a difficult and dissapointing decision for the club to make however without a coach, limited volunteers, and a shrinking committee, it was impossible to continue in its previous capacity.
“There were some significant challenges for the committee over the past year which made the daily operations of the club difficult and we had lost quite a few members,” Andrew explained.
“We are a membership-run club and as such rely on the volunteers to help the club operate.”
“But we’re looking toward the future and in order to have a committee and re-affiliate the club, we need to have membership numbers. We need people to put their hands up and get involved in the committee to see the club continue to operate. It is possible, but there needs to be the membership base there.”
Beerwah Aquatic Centre’s manager, Tom, is in support of the current club committee’s call for volunteers, sharing the swim club is a postive program for the community. While the aquatic centre is a seperate entity to the swim club, Tom said they do want to help and work together to bring back the comunnity driven club for local swimmers.
“There have been great things happening around the pool recently and I would love to see the club involved in that too,” said Tom. “The last thing I want to see is our local kids compete as part of neighbouring clubs. It would be great to see them representing their local community again.”
If you’re interested in helping get the Beerwah Splash Swim Club up and running again, contact Andrew at beerwah@widebayswimming.org.au
