Belgravia Leisure’s inclusive aquatic venues and passionate swim teachers have been recognised at this year’s AustSwim Awards.

Each year, Austswim honours Austswim teachers, presenters and recognised swim centres across Australia for their respective contributions to aquatic education and water safety.

This year, Auburn Ruth Everuss Aquatic Centre was awarded the prestigious accolade of AustSwim National Swim Centre of the Year as well as New South Wales Swim Centre of the Year. The venue was awarded in acknowledgement of their diverse, highly qualified and award-winning team of staff who hold accreditations over a range of GoSwim extension courses. Austswim spokesperson and former Olympic gold medallist Brooke Hanson recognised Auburn Ruth Everuss’s diverse variety of swimming and water safety lessons delivered across a multitude of languages.

Ms Hanson said of Auburn Ruth Everuss, “One of their most recent and successful programs is their culturally and linguistically diverse academy. This holistic Learn to Swim program focuses on newly arrived refugee youth. So far, they have provided swimming and water safety lessons to over 100 refugee youths. Ten of these participants have progressed to become GoSwim teachers and employed staff. They are a thriving hub for their community and their team.”

Cumberland City Council Mayor said, “We are pleased to have partnered with Belgravia Leisure to provide our diverse and multicultural community with inclusive leisure facilities at Auburn Ruth Everuss.”

Auburn Ruth Everuss are delighted to win the award and credit a large part of their success to the hard work of Aquatic Services Coordinator Kristen Romero, as well as the incredibly passionate team at the venue.

Aquarena Aquatic Centre was awarded AustSwim Victoria Swim Centre of the Year due to its excellent parent and child water safety programs and sessions which were designed to increase education and skills within the community. Aquarena’s efforts were acknowledged for recognising that Learn to Swim lessons and school swimming lessons are not accessible to all families and the venue was commended for creating an opportunity to visit by offering excursions to the pool where children spent half the timing learning about water safety in the classroom before entering the pool environment to put what they learnt into practice.

Aquarena Aquatic Service Manager Olivia Lie said, “The thing that drives us to be the best recognised swim centre is our passion for swim teaching and ensuring our community members know how to keep themselves safe when they’re around the aquatics environment. Not only are we passionate about swimming and swim teaching, we are also passionate about making our swim school accessible not only to people with a disability but also our older adult community as well.”

Smithton Wellbeing Indoor Recreation and Leisure Centre swim teacher Melissa Crosswell walked away with the AustSwim Tasmanian Swim Teacher of the Year Award in acknowledgement of her ability to build strong rapport with parents, carers and students. Circular Head Mayor Daryl Quilliam congratulated Ms Croswell on behalf of Council.  “I’ve known Melissa since she was a young girl and I’m thrilled to see that Melissa’s enthusiasm and passion for swim teaching has been recognised after many years of dedication to helping children in our district learn to swim.”

Ms Croswell said, “What drives me to be a great swim teacher is the fact that I get to see a child who is completely scared of the water, be able to then learn how to swim on front and back stroke, to be able to jump into the water, come up, get on their backs and get themselves to safety. That’s what drives me, the knowledge that the children I teach are able to swim and that this could potentially save their lives one day.”

Find out more about this year’s AustSwim awards here https://austswim.com.au/Awards.aspx

Learn more about Belgravia Leisure’s aquatic programs and services here https://belgravialeisure.com.au/our-sectors/aquatics/