Flying Fish News - 6/5/2020
For the calendar
Our pools are currently closed. However, we will begin filling the small pool soon with the hope we can start modified practices in early July.

Illinois Swimming Inc., our local affiliate of USA Swimming, is working hard in Springfield to share information about how swim practice and lessons can be done safely as Illinois reopens. Our goal is to be ready with the small pool when we get the go-ahead from the state.

Due to ongoing renovation work, the big pool will not be ready until the end of the summer.
Survey about returning to swim practice
Thank you to those of you who completed the survey about reopening our pools for swim practice. Your feedback was helpful as we prepare for the months ahead.

Approximately 180 surveys were completed and the majority of respondents were in favor of modified swim practices with standard Covid-19 safety protocols.

You'll find the email with the survey here.
Flying Fish annual awards
Unfortunately, we were not able to hold our annual season-end awards ceremony in person this year. However, we sent an email with information about awards and award winners. You'll find that email here. (Please note this correction to the 8-under marathon awards: Sam Cast swam 108 lengths and Eleanor Ey swam 97 lengths.)

This week, many of our outstanding swimmers and marathon award winners had their awards delivered to their front doors, like Sam and Claire Cast, who are pictured here. See below for more at-home award recipients.
Nate Rowe
Eleanor Ey
Nora Rogers
Fiona Harris
Erik Li
Susannah Keller
Help make the Flying Fish a Safe Sport Recognized Club
We are committed to ensuring a safe, healthy, and positive environment for our swimmers, coaches, parents, and volunteers.

During this downtime, you can help us formalize this commitment and earn recognition from USA Swimming as a Safe Sport Recognized Club. How? By completing a free, web-based training session.

In order for the Flying Fish to receive Safe Sport recognition, we need 15 percent of parents and 15 percent of swimmers (age 12-over) to complete this training.
  • For Safe Sport training for swimmers 12-over click here.
  • For Safe Sport training for parents click here.

Our LSC is Illinois Swimming and our club name is YWFF. Parents, if you are not a member of USA Swimming (most of you aren't) you will need to create a free account. Note: The athlete training course takes about 25 minutes and the parent course is slightly longer.

New: As another option, athletes and parents can now attend Zoom meetings conducted by USA Swimming to complete this training. See the links below.

Parents : Every Wednesday 3:00‐4:00pm EST
https://zoom.us/j/93724361466?pwd=OVF4RFlNZFpaMHhqSEVVRGwzbmpQUT09
Athletes: Every Thursday 3:00‐4:00pm EST
https://zoom.us/j/97633664936?pwd=YnpXZmljME5PcldacW9ZQ0w5YTFIZz09
Fish out of water
What can you do when you can't swim? We've got ideas:

  • Help the Flying Fish become a Safe Sport Recognized Club. See above.

  • Learn more about competitive swimming technique. GoSwim is providing free access to its terrific instructional videos. All you have to do is create an account with an email address.

  • Clean out your closets and drop off gently used women's clothing and accessories at YWCA's resale shop, the Shop for Good, in Wilmette. The shop is now accepting donations on Tuesday and Thursday afternoons from noon to 2 pm. Learn more here.

  • Shop at the Shop for Good, too! On June 4, the store opened for shopping with limited hours. Learn more here.

  • Participate in the Race Against Hate in a variety of ways, including running or walking on your own and sharing a photo on social media. Learn more here.

Our swimmers have ideas, too:
Harper and Tacy Jamison peered wistfully into the empty pool at Highland Park High School, another venue for many Flying Fish swim meets. Swim meet destinations seem to be popular field trips for Fish out of water!





Oona O'Brien, Frances Hammer and Monroe Stroth met at the beach (with proper social distancing) for stretching and yoga.

If you have stories about being a Fish out of water, share them with Pete. We may put them in the Flying Fish News!
You can still Race Against Hate this year!
Due to the pandemic, we won't gather at Long Field for the annual Race Against Hate on June 21. But you can still uphold the spirit of the Race Against Hate in a variety of ways. Learn more here.

Also, parents please join us June 25 and 26 for YWCA Evanston/North Shore's annual Equity Summit, which will be held virtually and feature Jamelle Bouie, columnist for the New York Times, and Natalie Moore, South Side reporter for WBEZ. Learn more here.
YWCA Flying Fish | 847-864-8445 | flyingfish@ywca-ens.org| www.ywca-ens.org