Hi everyone!

I hope everyone had a lovely weekend! I have lots of exciting updates and reminders for this upcoming week. There’s a lot in this email, so let me know if you have any questions.

Our last swim meet is tomorrow night against Westwood. It is a home meet, and we have plenty of activities planned for the night. Warmups are from 5:15-5:30. Also a reminder that the entries will go out tonight, and relays will go out tomorrow afternoon with potential updated entries. The coaches voted, and we decided that we want to do a decades theme for tomorrow night. Dress up in your favorite decade’s attire! The meet will begin with the pre-team 25 freestyle race. They will need all the cheering they can get, as most of them have never swam a race before! As most of you have seen, we have a parent relay happening tomorrow night as well. Finally, we will recognize our seniors at the meet. We’re so excited to celebrate their accomplishments and dedication to the team.

Please consider donating to the food drive that we are holding tomorrow night at the meet. We are collecting non-perishable food to be donated to the Welbourne Community Food Pantry. This is an amazing way for Avalon to come together to support our community. We would really appreciate all of the donations we can receive :)

Our final fun practice will be this Tuesday at normal time. This will be the final practice we hold for the regular season. As usual, we’ll have our ribbons and a sweet treat!

Wil and I will be in contact with the families that are planning to participate in Champs. There will be no swim practice this Wednesday for Champs swimmers because the coaches will be seeding the meet all day. Practice will then pick up on Thursday for champs athletes only. Practices will run from 9-10 am and 4-5 pm for the 10 & unders, and from 10-11 am and 5-6 pm for the 11 & older swimmers. Please be mindful that you must have a qualifying time AND be selected to participate in Champs. We unfortunately cannot bring everyone, but we will do everything we can to put as many ARA swimmers in the meet as we can. I just wanted to make this clear going into this week as we make these decisions. Wil and I, as well as Patty Chang, will send more information out to the swimmers’ families that are participating. We will not know the final list of swimmers until we seed the meet on Wednesday.

The swim banquet will be held this upcoming Sunday June 25th at 6:00 pm. Dinner will be provided by Deep Run Roadhouse, so please be sure to pay Michelle and Chip Gay by check, cash, or venmo (@Chip-Gay). Checks can be written to Avalon, and please drop these off in the Manager’s office. Pay by June 23rd, and RSVP by June 20th to the evite that was just sent by Patty Chang. Thank you to the parents and volunteers for organizing this event! The coaches are so excited to celebrate an amazing season with the kids.

That is all for now! See you all tomorrow, and GO GATORS!

-Leslie