Rotary help to support local swimming club

Pauline Mcdonough (MASC Instructor), Janette Allen (Secretary of MASC), Middleton Rotary President Jeff Lawton, Joanne Band (Membership Secretary)

The Rotary Club of Middleton have presented the Middleton Amateur Swimming Club (MASC) with £997 to allow the Club to continue to provide local children and adults with affordable swimming.

Janette Allen, Secretary of the Middleton Amateur Swimming Club said: “I would like to thank The Rotary Club of Middleton for their generous donation and their continued support over the years.

"These funds enable us to provide continuous professional development for our instructors and help us keep the fees to a minimum.

"Thanks to Rotary and our dedicated team of volunteers the MASC can still make it affordable for everyone to learn to swim in Middleton.”

Pauline Mcdonough, aged 68, is the longest serving volunteer instructor. Pauline became a member of the MASC and learned how to swim in 1978 as a child. She then became a volunteer instructor in 1989 and brought her children to the club to learn how to swim and she has been teaching the children of Middleton ever since.

Pauline is a real dedicated member of the MASC team and she has taught hundreds of children over the last 24 years.

Asked about the need for new volunteer instructors, Pauline  said: “We would welcome anyone who has ASA qualifications to join our team, we have a wonderful group of highly skilled instructors, but we are desperate for more. If anyone has skills and wants to join our team please get in touch or drop in and speak to us at the Middleton Arena on a Wednesday night.”

The Middleton Amateur Swimming club has 12 volunteers, seven of whom are ASA qualified instructors. The club is urgently looking for new volunteers to help keep the doors open and the lessons running. They need to find adults who are ASA level 1, level 2 or lifesaving qualified to help their team. 

The Middleton Amateur Swimming Club was founded at a meeting held on Monday 24 June 1895 in the Coffee Palace on Old Hall Street, Middleton. The 118-year-old club has had many homes but is now based at the well-equipped Middleton Arena.

The club has always been run entirely by volunteers, whose commitment enables the club to run weekly swimming lessons for children (aged 5-16) and provide an adult swim session for Middleton families.

The club is not-for-profit and the costs associated with keeping the doors open are ever increasing, cost of pool hire, life guards, administration costs, etc.

The club also assists their volunteers to obtain the appropriate swimming qualification to help ensure their swimming lessons are of the highest quality.

The cost to join the Middleton Amateur Swimming Club is £40 per annum and the cost per swim is only £1.50.

The Middleton Amateur Swimming club runs every Wednesday 6:30 - 9pm and they provide approximately 11 classes per week.

The club provides certificates and badges to the students and has a gala once a year where cups and medals are awarded to outstanding performers.