DAM is nations top masters swim group
Special to the Enterprise
Davis Aquatic Masters has been named the top masters swim club in the country by a national swim group.
At its national convention in Jacksonville, Fla., on Sept. 16, officials at U.S. Masters Swimming gave DAM the Club of the Year Award for 2011 for “increasing membership, advancing the sport of masters swimming and for its service to the community.”
DAM is the sixth club in America to receive this annual honor from USMS. The award was accepted by DAM Head Coach Stu Kahn.
The application, written by DAM board members Sharon Blaha and Tom Martens, described the group as “a veteran organization which, despite its large size, still functions like a family.
“Over the years, some of the members fell in love at practice and got married. Some of their children are now swimming with DAM.
“In this past year, the club ran a successful food drive, had over one-third of club members volunteer to take a class to become lifeguards to comply with a new safety requirement. The club had so many volunteers at its Berryessa Open Water Swim that it ran out of jobs for them.”
There are nearly 450 masters swim clubs in the country, including 108 in California.
With more than 550 members, the 37-year-old DAM is the largest single-city club in the country and offers 47 hour-long, coached workouts per week at Arroyo and Civic Center pools.
On average, 23 members swim in each practice. DAM offers a special daily workout geared for senior swimmers as there are more than 70 club members between the ages of 65 and 91.
Each year, the group sponsors the Lake Berryessa Open Water Swim that draws an average of 1,000 competitors, hosts a long-course race at UC Davis’ Schaal Aquatic Center and runs the Brute Squad national competition that involves using all the swim strokes.
The award recognizes a club not only for its swim training and competition regime, but also for its community service work.
“In 2005, with the City of Davis, a youth swim team and private donors, DAM helped build the 1,300-square-foot Brady Family Aquatics Building, which provides space for offices, storage, meetings and exercises at Civic Center Pool,” the application for the award noted. “In 2000, a DAM member donated $1 million to (UCD) as seed money for the Schaal Aquatic Center, which includes a 50-meter pool.”
In reviewing the application for the award, the USMS judges considered these DAM achievements:
* Paying the city more than $80,000 annually to rent pools, providing much-needed funds for pool operation, maintenance and expanded use.
* Subsidizing local youth aquatic programs by enabling them to pay a reduced pool rental rate to the city.
* Setting a national record by raising more than $40,000 with Swim Across America to provide cancer research funding to University of California San Francisco and the Oakland Children’s Hospital.
* Providing reduced dues to students and for seniors over 64 and free membership for seniors over 79, which promotes healthy activity for these age groups.
* Using funds from the Lake Berryessa race to make grants to nonprofit groups including Berryessa Trails Conservatory, city of Davis Disabled Swimming Program, Davis Firefighters, Yolo County Court Appointed Special Advocates, Firefighters Pacific Burn Institute, Boy Scouts, Yolo Hospice, Sexual Assault and Domestic Violence Center, American Red Cross, Davis Sports Foundation, Davis High School water polo and swim teams and Aquadarts Building Fund.
* Allocating other Berryessa race proceeds to provide free community health and education programs, including those on women’s health issues, stress and relaxation techniques and fitness alternatives for the elderly.
* Collecting hundreds of pounds of canned food at the Lake Berryessa race for the Food Bank of Yolo County and Loaves & Fishes Homeless Shelter.
In addition to swimming at DAM workouts, many members have other personal goals.
The application for the award mentioned that “small groups of enterprising members and alums create their own swim challenges such as swimming around the 72-mile perimeter of Lake Tahoe or across Lake Berryessa or the English Channel.”
And for most DAM members, their goal is to live up to the motto on the back of the DAM T-shirt: “How am I swimming? DAM fast.”
— Tom Martens is a member of the Board of Directors for Davis Aquatic Masters.
Short URL: http://www.davisenterprise.com/?p=86252
Posted by Tom Martens
on Sep 27 2011.
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