Nearly 30 swimmers from the Cranbrook Triton Swim Club were in the pool as the club held their annual Swim-A-Thon.
“Most of the clubs across Canada do the same fundraiser,” said Kara Zandbergen, president, Cranbrook Triton Swim Club.
“The kids swim for two hours, or 200 lengths of the pool, whichever comes first — 200 lengths are five Kilometres — A lot of the older swimmers finish that in just over an hour.”
The money raised at the event will go towards general costs that the club has including full-time coaching, which is the biggest cost.
“A little bit of travel for our coaches and we are always looking at what kind of equipment we can get to upgrade,” added Zandbergen.
While the event is about raising money, it also is a day where the swimmers will set goals for themselves, especially seeing how far the younger swimmers can get.
“It’s actually really fun to see how far they get. So often they think they are going to get maybe 80 laps, but they do 140 so they are super proud of themselves,” said Zandbergen.
“The kids setting their own personal goals is the best part. The fundraising is important, obviously for the club, but watching them exceed their goals is pretty cool.”
Before the Swim-A-Thon athletes were collecting pledges from friends, family and the community.
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They had swimmers range from eight years old to 18 take part in the event.
Last year when they held the fundraiser they raised more than $4,000 and look to raise about the same amount this year.
“It’s been higher in the past. We have had years where it’s been over $5,000, we’ve had lower years. Anywhere in that range, I’m happy with,” said Zandbergen.
The swimmers were handed out prizes at the end of the day. Some of the prizes were for how much money they raised, how many lengths were swum, and how fast they finished them.
All of the prizes were donated by local businesses, which they wanted to thank.
With the fundraiser finished, the club has a couple of competitions coming up before they wind down for the end of the season.
The club will travel to Kelowna for a large swim meet, a couple of swimmers will go to the Mel Zajac Jr. International Swim Meet in Vancouver, and swimmers will attend an outdoor meet in Radium.
Along with the upcoming meets, the club is looking for a new head coach, as the current coach will be retiring.
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