First Round Winners

Hi, My name is Sean O’Neill and I am part of the Blue Wave Aquatics Swim Club in Elkhart Indiana. We started the club in April of this year.

Elkhart has been hit hard by the economy. At times over the past 2 years we have seen unemployment rates as high at 20% in Elkhart. A lot of our families have 1 and sometimes 2 parents out of work. 50% of the kids in our high school are on free or reduced lunch due to their parent’s job status.

Our swim program has always been something we have been proud of. Lindsay Benko the Olympic gold medal winner came from Elkhart and Elkhart Central High School.

If you want to be a competitive swim program you have to be swimming all year round. You have to have a USA swimming club to train with but those cost money to join.

Our high school coaches Ryan Bounds and Kyle Hembree decided we had to have a club. They worked with some parents and started Blue Wave Aquatics Club in April of this year. They knew most of the parents would have a hard time paying for a club so they made it $200 for a family for a year. Some families have 5 kids in the program. They also coach for WITHOUT PAY so we can have a club.

We now have 53 teen swimmers.

The mission statement of BWAC is – “To use the sport of swimming to build character, leadership and discipline into young adults of the Elkhart Community."

We need donations to keep afloat. We need equipment like goggles, time clocks, stop watches, kick boards, suits, etc….

We are raising money ourselves with cars washes and other fundraisers but need more help.

Thank you for considering our program.