Incredibly proud to share this message from our RI President

45 days to go. What an amazing day all round!

This morning opened my Inbox to see that we had received a special message from Rotary International President Kalyan Banerjee - naturally it now has pride of place on the quotes section of our website

http://www.rotaryglobalswimarathon.org/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=81&Itemid=138

Thanks to the support of Jack Selway, CEO and founder of the inspiring worldwide Rotary Global History Fellowship and his executive board members Prakash Sarasawat and Nevine Abdelkhalek, we had 3 more club sign ups today in fairly rapid succession.

The first of which  appropriately enough was from a club in District 3170 India, especially symbolic given that  India has just  achieved a full year Polio free. A second sign up in District 3170 followed shortly afterwards, and then a brand new country represented as Nevine Abdelkhalek of the Rotary Club of El Tahrir in Egypt.

I also received encouraging confirmation from Ellen Yu of the Rotaract club of Shanghai that they are definitely taking part.

To cap it all, this afternoon, I had a great chat via Skype with Chad Waldo, from the Rotary club of Lee Sunrise in D6040 USA, who has set up a fantastic Podcast service to broadcast project news to clubs around the world . Check it out for yourself at http://itsrotary . Hopefully our conversation about Global Swimarathon will be ready and shareable on podcast by Sunday 15th January - will be sure to keep you informed. Reaching an audience of 500-600 Rotarians each week, I'd encourage anyone with a project idea or event you want to publicize to talk to Chad - you can even connect with him on twitter at http://www.twitter.com/itsrotary When I asked him about it yesterday he got in touch straight away and despite a few network gremlins at my end, remained patient and extremely helpful 

One final bit of good news is that RIBI have just released the 2nd nationwide press release about Global Swimarathon , so should be even more sign ups to come on a local RIBI level!

Only 7 more clubs to go till the next milestone of 50 - well on course to achieve that by the end of this week - the global map is looking more and more exciting by the day!! 

http://g.co/maps/edq5h

It's a small world after all!

47 Days to go. 


A fantastic illustration today of how far Global Swimarathon has got in terms of spreading around the world. Today I received this message on our Rotary Club of Grantham facebook page

Janet Mills

I left Grantham 11 years ago to live in Australia and recently moved to Mareeba in Far North Queensland. I`m not in Rotary but have been following the Swimarathon on facebook. I was so thrilled when I found that Mareeba are entering. I am very proud to tell anyone who will listen that I am from Grantham and remember and have supported the early swimarathons. Well done Grantham. I will be at the pool here on the day not swimming but supporting. 

Turns out that Janet was in a travel agent in Mareeba booking a trip back to Grantham, and the lady dealing with her (Ida Portella is it you?) was talking about Rotary and the subject of Swimarathon came up and how Mareeba were going to be joining in - amazing to think that someone from our town all those thousands of miles away will be able to "represent" Grantham at their event - just puts a huge smile on my face!!

It may be a big old world, but it really has been  made a lot smaller through the support and fellowship of the worldwide Rotary family!

Heartfelt thankyou's for everyone that's helped us along the way - Part 1

48 Days to go. Today I just wanted to take a few moments to reflect and acknowledge the remarkable support of some key people in the Rotary and sporting communities that have transformed swimarathon from a local project with a dream into a wonderful worldwide charity event.

Back in April 2011, when we first set out to make contacts with the wider Rotary world, we set up a facebook presence and gradually started getting the message out there. We had some great help via Rotarian Simone Carat Collins chair of the recently founded Rotary on Social Networking Fellowship and all the members, which really helped us get established and build up some supporters.

Next big breakthrough was when Rotarian Noelene Jorgensen of Port Elizabeth Rotary in District 9320 South Africa, picked up news of her event - and wow did she run with it. As a keen swimmer herself , with lots of local contacts in the swimming community, she immediately went out and got a pool secured, and then set about spreading the word throughout her district. She even invited us to attend her District conference to speak about the event which unfortunately we were unable to attend. Her support has resulted in at least 4 South African clubs signing up to date , including 3 in her District.

Meanwhile over in Australia, Rotarian Susanne Rea, fundraising officer for The Rotary Foundation (TRF) in District 9550 Queensland , continued to spread the word about our project at every possible District opportunity, which resulted in an extraordinary breakthrough. Marcel McLeod President of Townsville Rotary, had been talking with legendary Open water marathon swimmer and distance world record holder Penny Palfrey (based in Townsville) about a swimming event for End Polio Now, and when Marcel and Penny heard about our project from Susanne, rather than seeing it as a conflicting project, they immediately embraced it and suggested that Penny could even be our first Global event ambassador. It was absolutely overwhelming for us back in the UK, to have such an international swimming star backing our event.

We've had so much amazing support from them both, Marcel has done a huge amount of work publicizing and producing the materials to support the event as effectively the International branch of our swimarathon committee, Penny has consistently taken time out of her amazingly busy schedule to record video messages, and brought us a huge new dimension of open water swimmers in Ireland, the US and all around the world lining up alongside us and working with local Rotary clubs. Susanne has just been unbelievable , continually championing our cause with the remarkable result of 5 District 9550 clubs signed up including her own, even though she can't be there on the day - I had the pleasure of meeting her in person during her recent London visit, just brilliant to see the friendships and fellowships formed from working on this event.

In August, during a visit to our club and District by RIBI President Ray Burman, we were delighted by his extremely positive reaction and support when we pitched our global swimarathon plans to him. Ever since he has continued to support us via his facebook page, and even highlighted our event first in his quarterly video message over the summer. He helped us secure the support of RIBI nationwide PR for Global Swimarathon and ever since we've been in touch with the fantastic head of PR Rebecca Warner it's made a huge difference with 3 nationwide press releases in December, Jan and Feb. To top it all during his District tour of District 1030 at end of February, he will be a the  Rotary Club of Knaresborough event as their special guest

While writing this, it's dawned on me that I can't possibly cover all the all in one post - so as they say in all the best stories - to be continued!!

One thing is for sure , particularly for me as a novice Rotarian, in my first ever year , the family of Rotary, the worldwide fellowship, the heart and dedication of its members to service above self is almost beyond words, and beyond measurement. It will stay with me all my life - of that I am sure!

Start Spreading the news - 50 days to go!

Into the final 50 days of the countdown - pinch me I still must be dreaming!!

Just to underline the truly global nature of this event, I've just spent some time responding to questions from a journalist at the Mareeba Express newspaper in Queensland Australia!  We have had a phenomenal take up down-under (especially considering the time differences involved) with now 6 Australian and 3 New Zealand clubs confirmed as taking part.

What I really love doing at the moment is "googling" for Rotary Global Swimarathon and looking for new articles about the event- Try it yourself!!

Here's a selection of press and blog coverage - please take a look!!

http://www.ribi.org/news/articles/rotary-global-swimarathon-makes-a-splash-worldwide

http://www.rotaract.org.uk/index.php?cat=content&page=news_sheet&NewsID=111

http://cumbria24.com/news/2011/12/28/rotary-global-swimarathon-end-polio

http://openwaterpedia.com/index.php?title=Global_Swimarathon

http://harrogate-news.co.uk/2011/12/31/swimarathon-benefit-rotarys-polio-eradication-campaign/

http://loneswimmer.com/tag/swimarathon/

http://public-image-action.blogspot.com/2011/12/i-received-tweet-this-week.html

http://www.granthamjournal.co.uk/news/local/swimarathon_chairman_receives_an_award_created_in_his_honour_1_3253229

Of course, we want to keep all the communication lines flowing around the world. If you are a twitterer, please use #rotaryglobalswim at every opportunity to talk about the event and please follow us and encourage others to do so at http://www.twitter.com/rotaryglobeswim

Get in touch any time on our facebook page at http://www.facebook.com/rotaryglobalswimarathon

And send us an email at rotaryglobalswimarathon@gmail.com

Let's make this the biggest and best Rotary World Wide event ever!!

First Irish club registered / event news and updates

53 Days to go....

Just had confirmation thanks to the brilliant efforts of Irish Open Water legend Donal Buckley - check out his fantastic website at http://loneswimmer.com/ that the Rotary Club of Waterford D1063, Ireland have just become the 36th Club officially registered and the 11th country now represented - Here's the full list of entries http://www.rotaryglobalswimarathon.org/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=74&Itemid=124

As well as those already fully signed up we continue to get multiple new enquiries on a daily basis from Rotary Clubs across the Globe so we're hoping the list of entries will rapidly expand to 100 or more by the end of this month!

Just take a look at some of the quotes and feedback we've had on the website

‎#Rotaryglobalswim - Just published a great selection of messages on what people are saying about the event around the world! http://www.rotaryglobalswimarathon.org/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=81&Itemid=138

Here in the UK RIBI (Rotary in Great Britain and Ireland) are now centrally promoting the event to every club in the Country

 Sign up and dive in to save millions of children from polio:http://www.ribi.org/news/articles/rotary-global-swimarathon-makes-a-splash-worldwide

Rotary Global Swimarathon makes a splash worldwide - RIBI

www.ribi.org

We've even been featured in Rotary Down Under magazine - have a look on page 35

features a full page article (P35) on Penny Palfrey's incredible @EndpollioNow challenge and her support for Global Swimarathon http://flipflashpages.uniflip.com/2/26587/49598/pub/ - 50,000 readers - very exciting!!

Rotary Down Under

flipflashpages.uniflip.com

Please please keep on spreading the word - talk to your club and get signed up if you can - be part of something amazing!!