Here are your nominees for the Swim England Inspirational Volunteer Award

The Swim England National Awards 2021 is a chance to recognise and celebrate the incredible spirit of the aquatics community – especially evident during these challenging times.

The awards ceremony will be streamed live on the Swim England Facebook page on Saturday 9 October.

Each day in the run up to the awards, the spotlight will be on the shortlisted nominees for each of the categories.

The nominees for the third award, the Swim England Inspirational Volunteer Award, are:

Ian Dick – Bingham Penguins (East Midlands Region)

Ian Dick has been a volunteer with Bingham Penguins for more than six years.

His role as a swimming teacher, committee member, and membership secretary see him being an integral person within the club.

His warm, welcoming demeanour creates a positive environment for the club and its members and his dedication to the club’s success are recognised in this nomination.

Cliff Taylor – Leyland Barracudas ASC (North West)

An insatiable hunger for knowledge has earned avid volunteer and coach Cliff Taylor this nomination.

After first becoming involved with the sport seven years ago, he has since completed multiple courses and workshops in order to gain both knowledge and experience within swimming.

He is currently completing his Level 2 Coaching Course and his commitment and passion are appreciated by everyone at Leyland Barracudas.

Louise Perkins – Teamipswich Swimming (East Region)

Louise Perkins is chair of the committee at Teamipswich Swimming and worked tirelessly throughout the pandemic in order to support the club.

She took on the role of covid-coordinator during the pandemic which saw her coordinating a team of people and ensuring the club could safely return to training.

Her presence and input at county meetings has not only helped her club, but her locality and wider swimming community too.

Jackie Bedford – Beckenham Swimming Club (London Region)

Jackie Bedford has been involved with Beckenham SC for more than 30 years and in January 2020, took on the role of chairperson.

As a former president of the club, her advice, motivation and support is seen as being invaluable to the club and its members.

Her productivity during lockdowns has seen the club emerging in a stronger position with exciting plans in place for the future.

Lisa Mickel – Crawley Swimming Club (South East Region)

Lisa Mickel has been heavily involved in aquatic sports since the age of 12 when she first joined Crawley SC.

She is a masters swimmer herself and now has two children in the club where she also coaches the post-graduate squad.

She encouraged communication during the pandemic by setting up a WhatsApp group and has worked extremely hard to ensure that members never lost motivation when they couldn’t be in the water.

Ceri Tombs – Evesham Swimming Club (West Midlands Region)

Ceri Tombs’ contributions to her club throughout the pandemic allowed Evesham SC to ensure that every swimmer, parent, and volunteer were supported and informed.

She organised monthly rosters, was approachable and friendly in her role and made sure that everyone was well informed of the latest training advice.

Without her input, the club say it’s not sure how they would have managed.

Ben Mullen – Bristol Penguins (South West Region)

Ben Mullen’s work throughout the pandemic has been described as ‘instrumental’ by his club.

He ensured Zoom training sessions were accessed by the swimmers as well as negotiating with the pool when the club was once again able to access pool training.

He played a leading role in delivering Level X events within the club and was dedicated to engaging the swimmers of the club.

David Culf – Halifax Swimming Club (North East Region)

David Culf stepped up for his club during the pandemic after volunteering to be the covid-lead. In this role, he wrote risk assessments, joined seminars, planned for pool reopening and made sure that the club was ready to ‘hit the ground running’.

His efforts have been deeply appreciated and came to fruition when he negotiated a new training facility for the club to ensure that members could return to the water in April 2021.