Carterton Indoor Pool fundraiser blows target out of the water
Members of the Carterton Indoor Pool Project would like to thank the 340 participants who covered over 2.5 million metres in the CENTRAL ITM Big Swim and who contributed to the massive community fundraising effort by raising over $52,000 to help save the Carterton Indoor Swimming Pool.
Held throughout the month of March, the aim of the CENTRAL ITM Big Swim was to swim a cumulative total of a million metres to raise funds to upgrade the indoor pool building. This was achieved through individual efforts and challenge events, with an opportunity for anyone to take part in a postal swim from anywhere in the world.
Carterton Indoor Pool Project Chair, Anna Beetham, is delighted with the result and extremely grateful for the outstanding support from the participants and their Givealittle donors. “Not only did we double our big audacious goal of covering one million metres, but we raised a significant amount of money. We are so grateful for the level of donations which will go a long way to support future grant funding applications,” said Beetham.
"The Carterton Indoor Pool is the only public indoor pool in the Southern Wairarapa. It is regularly used for learn-to-swim programmes, recreational swimming, and mobility and rehabilitation.
“The pool is over 35 years old and needs an urgent upgrade so the community can continue to use it all year round.
“This fundraiser has clearly demonstrated how much this facility means to the community. We had more than 200 primary school children swim continuously for a day and people who have reengaged in swimming as adults after finishing up in their teens. We’ve also had people swim every day to get fitter, and we even had two people solo swim across Lake Taupō as part of the event.”
Carterton Swimming Club’s Scarlett Wadham swam the furthest, covering 130,000m – the equivalent of swimming the English Channel twice, the Cook Strait and Lake Taupō – closely followed by Jason McPhee who swam 120,000m. In all, 10 members of Jason’s family covered over 271,000m across 17 different venues, including local pools, lakes and the ocean. Closer to home, Justin Edge achieved his personal aim of 100km by swimming 100,600m in the Carterton Pool.
Support came from far and wide, with 12 members of Wellington’s Spud Buds Open Water Swimming Group covering a combined distance of 640,000m, including those two 40.2km crossings of Lake Taupō. In addition, the Carterton Primary Schools swam 199,793m in just six hours, and the Geange Whānau covered 111,010m during the month.
Beetham is quick to point out that this effort wouldn’t have been possible with the support of a number of key sponsors and event partners. “We’d like to thank CENTRAL ITM for their generous support of our community fundraiser, as well as Mayfair Pool & Pool Construction Ltd, Swimming Wellington, SPLASH, Printcraft, Go Media, Wairarapa Times-Age, Mediaworks, New World Carterton and Premier Bacon,” she added.