Meet the nominees for the Swim England Inspirational Young 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. To receive a reminder update before the Awards commence, click here.

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 fourth award, the Swim England Inspirational Young Volunteer Award, are:

Harriet Smith – Loughborough Town Swimming Club (East Midlands Region)

Harriet, or Hattie as she is known to her peers at Loughborough Town SC, has been a dedicated volunteer at the club for many years.

She has progressed from being a swimmer herself to officiating before progressing to coaching. The club describes her as a ‘confident and capable’ lane coach who constantly endeavours to get the best out of the swimmers in her care.

Her positivity is felt by those around her and her devotion to the club is valued and appreciated.

Lottie Meade – Blackburn Centurions (North West Region)

Lottie Meade is a loyal, dedicated and selfless volunteer at Blackburn Centurions and began assisting on poolside at just 14.

Having to balance her GSCE’s in 2020-21 alongside her volunteering work didn’t deter Lottie from putting just as much time and effort into the club.

She also completed her Level 1 Teaching course during this time and has successfully finished the theory elements of her Level 2 course, and continues to give up her time to support her club.

Molly Monk – City of Norwich Swimming Club (East Region)

Molly Monk has been instrumental to both Dereham Otters and more recently, City of Norwich SC after she joined there in 2020.

Ensuring that swimmers stayed connected throughout lockdown and remained positive was very important to her. Molly took on the challenge when like many other clubs, the coaching team were furloughed.

Her efforts also extended to fundraising activities during lockdown where she coordinated a challenge which saw members of the Dereham hop, skip, walk, cycle or swim from ‘London to Tokyo’.

David Langley – Beckenham Swimming Club (London Region)

David Langley’s enthusiasm and ‘outstanding dedication’ to his club and fellow squad members has earned him this nomination.

As a swimmer in the club’s top squad himself, he participated in online training sessions both as an athlete and as a volunteer – offering several circuit sessions to the younger swimmers.

He is a role model for the youngsters in the club and has now been appointed junior club captain for the second year in a row.

Micah Partridge – Tiverton Swimming Club (South West Region)

Micah Partridge has been described as a personable, dedicated and enthusiastic member of his club, both as a swimmer and a teacher.

He commits much of his time outside of the water to supporting the club by engaging with the younger swimmers in Tiverton, and was also keen to volunteer at any Level X competitions that the club ran throughout the pandemic.

His support and motivation to learn and progress within the sport is admirable and is something that is respected and appreciated by his peers.

Lewis Baybutt – Maxwell Swim Club (South East Region)

Lewis Baybutt has worked tirelessly to better and support his club throughout the duration of the pandemic.

In this time he has redesigned the club’s website, helped design an app that swimmers use as a training tool, passed his Level 1 Teacher qualification, and created a simple joining process for potential new swimmers to the club.

His constant attempts at finding solutions and dedicating his time to the club have helped the club flourish throughout the last 18 months.

Amy-Lee Jones – Dove Valley ASC (West Midlands Region)

Amy-Lee Jones is an active member of the Young Volunteers Programme and has completed her timekeepers and is looking forward to completing her Judge 1 in order to give back to her sport.

Spending time on poolside has earned her the respect and admiration of the club’s swimmers, as well as her mentor Steven Jones.

She has been described as a model swimmer in every way and is a valued member of Dove Valley.

Zoe Clark – Durham City Aquatics (North East Region)

Having started as a junior swimmer at Durham City Aquatics, Zoe Clark’s passion for swimming and her club has always been evident. She fully embodies the ethos of life long participation.

She has avidly observed coaches in the club to develop her own coaching style and has completed both her assistant coach and teacher courses.

Her presence and input is valued by everyone around her and in the words of her club, ‘swimming is lucky to have her’.