One Month to Go!

30 days to go. 

This morning I joined our Swimarathon chair Roger Graves at the Grantham Meres Leisure Centre the home of Grantham Swimarathon and soon to be centre stage in the Global Swimarathon.

Standing outside freezing cold in our Global Swimarathon t-shirts, like a couple of silly school boys clutching our inflatable globe, as our picture was taken for the local paper the Grantham Journal, couldn't help but think of all the amazing events that will be happening in exactly a month's time. Could this funky space age looking late 80s creation, really be the Pool that finally Ended Polio!?

No time for glamour shoots for us though , Hello magazine will have to wait! Brilliant to get even more signups with the Rotary Club of Redwing Minnesota becoming the 7th USA club and helping us achieve a magnificent 60 clubs officially registered.

Then in this very special Olympic year for our capital city , we got the news that the Rotaract Club of Westminster had formally registered and will be staging a Swimarathon in partnership with the Rotary Club of London - London's oldest Rotary Club which last year celebrated it's 100th year and is club number 50 in the worldwide list.

So Roger says to me - can we get the London Olympic pool next? We can all dream!!

Been brilliant gathering in the details from around the world about the local events. As I mentioned yesterday we look absolutely certain to break the world record, bearing in mind the first 12 clubs to estimate participants have come up with a total of 4000 swimmers between them!!

Please keep the information coming in, and please keep on promoting your participation within your local area  and districts - just like me and Roger this morning  - we really have got the whole world in our hands!!

An Incredible Global community of swimmers united to End Polio Now!

46 days to go.

Another milestone reached, as we can announce our 40th full registered club taking part in the event.
The Rotary Club of Mawddach in District 1180 Wales, became our first entry from Wales, and our 17th overall in Great Britain and Ireland - many thanks to Rotarian Beryl Clark for registering your club.

We're reaching ever more countries as well - just today Ellen Yu from the Rotaract club of Shanghai, China confirmed that their club had voted to take part - so very much look forward to them joining the list.

Sometimes, rather than words, a simple picture will suffice. Here's a first draft map capturing all of the clubs signed up to date around the world - just wonderful to see it all here

View Rotary Global Swimarathon participants map

Like a child on Christmas Morning!

51 days to go.

Well the Christmas holidays are behind us now, and new global Swimarathon enquiries are coming in thick and fast. Right now I feel exactly that amazing sense of anticipation and wonder as I did waking up on Christmas morning all those years ago.

In this case, substitute stockings for Inboxes and facebook pages, but you get the drift !!!

Yesterday alone, our twitter appeal for new followers went out to 120,000 twitter users thanks to Rotary International , which brought us brand new and very positive enquiries from Rotaract Shanghai in China, from Rotaract Westminster in London as well as dozens of new supporters.

Just this morning in the space of 30 minutes we had two new sign ups from District 9550 Australia clubs , taking the total of Australia and New Zealand participants to 9  out of the 38 clubs registered  - an incredible effort given the time zone differences involved.

So many exciting developments, so much happening - just like a certain man in a red suit, I can see we are going to be very busy on 25th - every boy and girl has been very good!!