Tuesday, December 22, 2020

Happy Christmas!

 

Dear All,

What an extraordinary year 2020 has been for everyone. We have had 2k, 5k, 20k travel limits and lockdown within counties whereby people couldn’t travel outside of their own county but hopefully we will have a little more freedom in the not-too-distant future.


Firstly, on behalf of all of the Aer Lingus Masters Swimmers, I wish to thank our Coach, Peter and our Treasurer Mary not only for their commitment to the Club but for all the hard work they have “put into” the swimming schedules and the club during these unprecedented and challenging times. 

Also thank you to Bronwyn, our Chief Covid Officer, for all the work she has been doing and continues to do by emailing the COVID forms and retaining the data as per the Swim Ireland guidelines. 

Several members of the masters also partook in the COVID training sessions on-line so there a number of people who are available on the Bank for each session.

Swim Ireland have also been supportive in providing guidelines for returning to the water for clubs and facilitating meetings via web-based platforms.

Following the first lockdown, stringent guidelines have been put in place at the Pool, with the support of ALSAA staff, which enabled us to return to our training sessions. We wish to say “Thank You” to all of our swimmers for adhering to the masking up, hand-sanitizing, distancing entering and exiting the pool building, distancing and sticking to the time limits in the dressing rooms so as to allow the disinfecting of these between each group using the dressing rooms. 

Also, there are the protocols around entry and egress from the water and ensuring swimmers stay the requisite 2 meters apart in the water. Although it can be difficult to adhere to these, the practices currently in place are to ensure the well-being and safety of all of us.
It has been very difficult to have the number of swimmers, many of whom would have been regulars at each session pre-Covid, reduced due to the need for adherence to Swim Ireland guidelines and Government legislation.  Currently there are two 45 minute sessions on Monday evening, two on Wednesday evening and the one hour session on Saturday morning.  Despite this the schedule does not allow all swimmers to avail of two sessions per week, although this would be the preferred option.

Another option which the braver of our swimmers availed of was that of going to Tower Bay to take part in the sea swims, initially this was daunting for some, but now they are encouraging the rest of us to join!

We have to continue to adhere to all of the guidelines for the foreseeable future and so, both Patricia and I would like to thank you for your perseverance. 

There are no words or gestures by which we could express our sincere thanks to Peter and Mary for being at the helm of our Club and endeavouring, in so far as possible, to allow everyone attend the training sessions.

Finally, we wish everyone one of the Aer Lingus Masters a very Happy Christmas and hopefully a Healthy and Happy New Year for 2021.

Katherine Murphy Patricia Reilly
Secretary Chairperson
Aer Lingus Masters SC Aer Lingus Masters SC