This years' Ted Simpson recipient is a bit of a story and a journey, but one that demonstrates courage and determination, and most importantly, a clear love of swimming. Susan has been swimming for many years—competing as a swimmer at a high level as a youth and later as a masters swimmer and in triathlons. In March 2022, Susan began having symptoms of a stroke. This required a hospital admission and treatment and a long road towards recovery. Having a goal of returning to the pool, she launched into reading about stroke recovery and learning how to reach her goals. She continued to put in the work and repetition to recover not just her physical function, but all aspects of her life.

With help from the rehab team she learned how to ride a bike again—no small feat given the changes in motor, sensory, and cognitive abilities. About three and a half months after the stroke, Susan returned to the pool. She relearned how to tread water, scull, and slowly regained movement patterns that once felt so simple. With determination and repetition she returned to swim practices with her team in fall 2022. Having a team around her again helping keep that motivation high.

Over the next few years Susan returned to running and competition—completing a 5 km run and then a 10 km run. She also returned to swim meets in the 23-24 season. Her current goal is to swim at the Masters Worlds in Budapest in 2027. Her teammates see so much gratitude from her for all the individuals, therapists, teammates, and coaches who were there during her recovery. And in addition to working on her physical recovery, she has also created a fundraiser for the Heart and Stroke Foundation to help raise funds for research to support others. Never stopping and demonstrating very clearly the MSABC values of Fun, Fitness, and Friendship, We are pleased to present the Ted Simpson award to Susan Atkey.

As some of you know Vernon is building a 50 M swimming pool. Last summer, a group of us were socializing in the hot tub, as we are wont to do, when the discussion turned to the new pool and our having an opportunity to put on major events once it is completed. Robynne asked " What does it take to put on a big event?" The answer was organization and Officials. "Do we have enough Officials"? "No, because we all want to swim not officiate." So Robynne took it upon herself to increase the number of Officials. She worked with Mike Stamuis to put on Officials clinics and made them virtual so people didn't have to travel to Vernon to attend them. Then she cajoled us to attend the clinics and then volunteer at the swim meets up and down the Okanagan to get certified. She attended all of the clinics and volunteered at age-group meets and the 55+ Summer Games. When our long time Meet Manager was unavailable for our swim meet this year, Robynne stepped up as the Meet Manager. 

Robynne quickly determined that one of the major issues that Officials face, was no way to communicate and coordinate the needs of Meet Managers. Using her academic background, she built a tool to assist in communication and coordination of Officials and piloted it in the Okanagan this winter. She is rolling it out to all officials throughout BC.

Robynne also joined the board's Open Water Committee which is planning to hold the first sanctioned Open Water event in BC. We have lots of open water events but they aren't sanctioned. Since it is Robynne and Mike working on this, they of course are also planning an Open Water Officials clinic in conjunction with the event.

But wait, there's more.

This winter Vernon Masters main coach had to step back. Of course, Robynne stepped up and dragged her husband, Kurt, along to be the new Vernon coaches. They have brought enthusiasm and new workouts to the club.

Robynne and Kurt are planning to attend the World Masters Games in Taiwan next month so Robynne has worked this winter with Linda, our Communications Director, to create an online community for all the BC swimmers attending Worlds this summer in Taiwan and Singapore.

Finally, while doing all this volunteering, Robynne has also secured a time window next summer to attempt to swim the English Channel and has been training diligently to ensure the attempt is successful.

Congratulations Robynne, on your well-deserved award.

This year, we are honouring the many years of service that Julie Jones has given to MSABC. Early on in her swimming career, Julie swam with the Winskill Otters and was the Registrar for MSABC. When she stepped down from the Registrar position, Julie still wanted to contribute so she volunteered to keep track of the MSABC records. For several decades, Julie continued to keep our records updated, and ensured that they were posted to the MSABC website.

We greatly appreciate Julie's dedication in not only tracking the Provincial records, but also ensuring that the required paperwork for National and World Records was completed accurately and sent on to Swimming Canada and World Aquatics (formerly FINA) in a timely fashion. Many times, Julie needed to follow up with Meet Managers, coaches, and swimmers to obtain the proper signatures and verifications (pool length, official splits, etc) on the official forms. Julie also sent record certificates to swimmers celebrating their records. We honour Julie's dedication with this year's Builder Award.

This past season, Swim BC has been working on taking over the very time-consuming record-keeping task--in part so that the records can be automatically flagged during the meet using the Meet Manager software and then forwarded to Swimming Canada.