Rotary Sports week wrap-up
The week of July 20th to 26th began with a two day swim meet and ended on a high note with the 100 Holes of Golf in One Day tournament. Both events were fun filled and tremendous successes each in their own way.
The Milford Rotary Swim Meet has been one of the club’s largest community service projects since 1966. Officially the 45th since becoming a “sanctioned” meet, this year’s swim meet saw 596 athletes from 17 teams participating in 86 events and countless heats. This year we honored Jim Rezzarday for his 26 years as our Meet Director and overall 30 years of involvement with “The Rotary” as the meet is affectionately known in swim circles.
As they do every year, Rotarians worked both on-deck and in the field passing out ribbons, timing races, flipping burgers, chopping onions, selling commemorative tee-shirts, parking cars, cheering on the swimmers and so much more. But Rotarians don’t do this alone - community spirit and volunteerism carry the day or in this case two days.
The hallmarks of this event have always been cooperation and collaboration along with a great deal of community support and participation. Collaboration with the Town of Milford, the Milford Recreation Commission, the Milford Keyes Swim Team family and the visiting teams is essential to the success and longevity of the meet. From the “Welcome Rotary Swimmers” signs posted by local businesses to the many community volunteers who share their time, all of it comes together to ensure that the athletes and their guests have a fun and enjoyable experience at the annual Milford Rotary Swim Meet.
In a post event email, Maury McKinney, Saco Valley Swim Team Coach, wrote:
“Our swimmers and our team had a wonderful experience at this year's Milford Rotary swim meet. We will definitely be coming back and hopefully with more swimmers and for both days next year. The park is well maintained and a tribute to the community. The work of the Milford Rotary is an inspiring legacy to the power and longevity of your community aquatics program. ….….You all run an outstanding meet. Great spirit behind it. Thank you for making swimming fun for our swimmers and their families. It sure makes developing a team here in the Mt. Washington Valley a lot easier.”
That sense of community engagement continued at the 100 Holes of Golf tournament. Originally a joint project with the Nashua West Rotary Club, in recent years Milford Rotary has taken this on as our premier fund raising event. Funds are raised through sponsorships and the sale of raffle tickets. Pre-tournament sale of raffle tickets is the mainstay of the event. A number of local nonprofit organizations signed up to sell 100 Holes raffle tickets through the 50/50 program. The Henniker Rotary Club led by Golfer Joe Clement and the Hudson, Nashua West and Lowell Clubs once again helped with the raffle ticket sales.
As Ryan Hansen noted in a recent Union Leader article about 100 Holes “It's a long day but a great event that only comes together because of the hard work of a lot of volunteers."
Friends of Rotary and volunteers from the Boy Scouts, Business League, Amherst Lions, Rotary Interact and Boys & Girls Club came out to help work the course, spot errant balls, fix divots and generally help keep up the rapid pace of play. Many local businesses joined the fun by sponsoring the event, providing hole-in-one prizes, and donating the complimentary food and beverages available throughout the day. A delicious lunch and sumptuous dinner were donated by the Meat House and by Giorgio’s Ristorante, respectively. For a complete list of our sponsors, please click here. Despite the morning monsoon, the golfers had a great time and the club raised a whole lot of money that will be redistributed for the greater good through our charitable donation and scholarship programs.
Planning has already started for the 46th Milford Rotary Swim Meet and the 20th 100 Holes of Golf in One Day tournament. See you in 2014 on July 19th & 20th at Keyes Memorial Pool and on July 25th at the Amherst Country Club!
