Witney & District Swimming Club : Fundraising

Welcome to the Witney & District Swimming Club Fun & Fundraising section. Here you can help raise funds for the Club by participating in the '100 Club', the annual Penguin Draw and all other fundraising activities planned throughout the year.

Read the good times had below by the swimmers attending various events and find out how you can participate in forthcoming events.

Have you heard about easyfundraising yet? It�s the easiest way to help raise money for Witney & District Swimming Club! If you already shop online with retailers such as Amazon, M&S, Argos, John Lewis, Comet, Vodafone, eBay, Boden and Play.com, then we need you to sign up for free to raise money while you shop!

So how does it work?
You shop directly with the retailer as you would normally, but if you sign up to http://www.easyfundraising.org.uk/causes/witneydistrictsc for free and use the links on the easyfundraising site to take you to the retailer, then a percentage of whatever you spend comes directly to us at no extra cost to yourself.

How much can you raise?
Spend �100 with M&S online or Amazon and you raise �2.50 for us. �100 with WH Smith puts �2.00 in our pocket and so on. There's over 2,000 retailers on their site, and some of the donations can be as much as 15% of your purchase.

Save money too!
easyfundraising is FREE to use plus you'll get access to hundreds of exclusive discounts and voucher codes, so not only will you be helping us, you�ll be saving money yourself.

Swimmers, members and friends and family of Witney Swimming club pay for a number and prizes are awarded each month. The reminding profit goes straight to the swimming club.

To join please see Christine Naus (I am at the pool Thursday Mornings, Friday and Sunday evenings), email me on christinenaus@yahoo.co.uk or call me on 01993 844010

If you already have a number in the 100 club please can you let me know by the start of December if you would like to keep your number or let me know if we can sell your number to someone else.

The first draw will be in December (same time as the penguin raffle) and as an incentive for you all to join up before then the Christmas 1st prize will be �50. (draw will only include paid up members)

So don't miss out on the chance to win and join today.

For some excellent photos of Club Championships and Diddy Championships covering 3 years, please click on the image below. Note that Simon can now produce Key rings, Fridge magnets, Mugs, Calendars and Posters from any of the images at a very reasonable price

What an incredible journey this was. On Friday, 6th April through to Saturday, 7th April 2007 we held a 24 hour non-stop relay swim at the Carterton Leisure Centre. This was our major fundraising event for 2007. Our initial target was to swim the equivalent distance of Oxford to Carlisle non-stop and raise �15,000 for skills development workshops and for Cancer Research UK. The swim challenge was smashed, by swimming a total distance of 588 kilometres - a truly incredible achievement. Well done and thank you to everyone who participated.

A fantastic time was had by everyone who participated in the inaugural 'Swim It's a Knockout' - the Witney & District Swimming Club's first inter-house gala for 2007. The Games were held on Saturday, 6th January 2007 at the Windrush Leisure Centre, Witney. The six participating teams: Barracudas, Sharks, Dolphins, Penguins, Marlins and Orcas all had to undertake a series of water-based challenges from throwing water-filled balloons from one end of the pool to swapping T shirts, hats, gloves etc before the highly entertaining 'finale'. The level of creativity demonstrated by each team in their efforts to 'fill their buckets' was truly inspiring!!

Thanks to all to the swimmers, team managers' and friends and family members for making this a successful event, without whom this would not have been possible.

Special thanks to Tommy Foggett, Laura Cable, Daph Adair, Sue Cable, Jo Blackford, Neal Hall & Roger Taylor for their help poolside.

The winner of the 'Quick Quiz' competition was Abigail Beszant with 15 correct answers. Well done Abigail, a bottle of wine is on it's way! Answers on the Club noticeboard.

On Friday, 15th December 2006, the Penguin Draw was held at the Windrush Leisure Centre. Many thanks to Sally Barrett, Hannah Barrett, Catherine Kendall and to Daph Adair for their stirling efforts this year in organising this event. Over �320 was raised. Many thanks to everyone who kindly donated a 'penguin prize'. Our special 'golden' ticket square winners were:

2nd prize - Adam Colling aka 'The Parents' - a case of Wychwood Brewery Special Beers

Special thanks to ASK Restaurant, Wychwood Brewery and to Oxford Instruments for their kind donations.

Thanks to the stirling efforts of Adam Colling, Nathan & Daniel Harkin, Jack Kendall, Conor Taylor, Scott Webster, and Yolanda Speare for raising a grand total of �191.77 on Sunday, 11th November towards future swim skills workshops planned for 2007. The team of Witney swimmers proved to be more than a match for the seasoned �car boot sellers� on the day. Special thanks to Annie Foggett, Shaun & Fiona Harkin and to Roger Taylor for pulling in the willing buyers.

A fabulous time was had by all on Saturday, 2nd September 2006 at Youlbury Scout Activity Centre in Boars Hill, nr Oxford. The rain held off whilst �chefs� Whiteley (see below), Taylor & Kendall served a veritable feast of BBQ delights followed by a gooey marshmallow frenzy. Go-karting, orienteering, drinking, a great football match all made for a brilliant afternoon�s entertainment.

On the 8th January 2006, 20 swimmers from the Club combined their annual Christmas 800 swim with their fundraising efforts for the worthy global cause �World Swim for Malaria�. The team raised over �1050. Much needed mosquito nets were purchased from the team�s fundraising and distributed to malaria infected areas worldwide. The nets will help save 17 lives. Click on the link for more info. World Swim For Malaria

Witney attended the annual Xmas gala held at Braunstone in December 2005. This event was a challenge for the swimmers who didn�t know what they were swimming until their swim was pulled randomly out of a hat whilst standing on the blocks! The swimmers finished the evening by joining the disco festivities in their fancy dress costumes �Movie Characters�. It was a fab, fun-filled evening.

On the 5th September 2005, the Witney & District Swimming Club celebrated their 30th anniversary as a competitive swimming club by holding a spectacular disco party at Wood Green School in Witney. The food was great, the atmosphere lively, the disco was in full-swing with Abba songs filling the dance floor. Swimmers past and present made this a year and evening to remember.