Registration is open for 2018 Skipton Swimarathon

Wednesday 27 June 2018

Registration for this year's Swimarathon opened on Monday, as the committee announced their new Ambassador for what is the island's largest fundraising event.

Gary Dovey, coordinator of the Le Murier School Village Project has been named as Ambassador for the Bailiwick’s 42nd annual Swimarathon. Mr Dovey will be joining representatives of the Skipton Swimarathon committee as they promote the event at schools and around the island.

Individuals, clubs, families, community groups and businesses are invited to register their teams for this year’s event which will take place at Beau Sejour from Wednesday 3 to Sunday 7 October.

The Skipton Swimarathon raised over £54,000 for local charities last year and organisers are hoping with such a worthwhile cause as their main beneficiary, this year could be their biggest event to date.

Mr Dovey said: “For many years we have taken our students on residential trips to learn crucial independent living skills, but these trips are costly and can’t happen every week. Having an independent learning unit that is always available will give our students and those who require it in Guernsey the opportunity to develop these skills on an ongoing basis.

"We have already raised £180,000 to fund the development of the Village Project and are optimistic that with the contribution from this year’s Swimarathon the project will shortly be up and running for the Island to utilise.”

Money raised from the Skipton Swimarathon will go towards the building of four log cabins as part of Le Murier School Village Project, designed to help the students of Le Murier School and the wider community learn independent living skills.

Nick Guillemette, Chairman of the Skipton Swimarathon Committee, said the committee had already over 60 responses from past year's teams saying they will be signing up again. 

Last year, the Skipton Swimarathon introduced Corporate Sponsor Awards to recognise the hard work and fundraising efforts of corporate teams who entered the competition. Last year’s Gold Award was presented to Grow Limited, who raised over £1,500. The committee will be looking to build upon these Corporate Sponsor Awards in 2018, encouraging more corporate firms to get involved and developing a friendly sense of competition within various industries.