COVID 19 put a hold on many fundraising events globally, nationally and locally with many charities
and organisations wondering how they were going to continue to provide necessary services within
their communities.
In 2019 Atlantic Masters Swimming club held the inaugural Atlantic Lifeboat Swim raising over €7500
in funds for local sea-based organisations. Unfortunately, due to the restrictions required to prevent
the spread of COVID 19 the club had to postpone the 2020 event which was due to happen on the
12 th June this year. At the same time club members training sessions were unfortunately cancelled.
When offered refunds, members decided to pool their refunds and purchase 4 VHF Radios for the
RNLI in the hope that this would go some way to fill the gap in funding due to the cancellation of the
Atlantic Lifeboat Swim.
Mike Swan LOM Galway Lifeboat expressed his thanks on behalf of the Galway Lifeboat and RNLI,
saying “Atlantic Masters club members are as passionate about water safety as they are about
swimming and that can be seen by this generous donation of VHF radios. Within 24hrs of receiving
the radios they were in use on three separate shouts, enabling crew members to respond faster and
with greater efficiency. They truly will save lives.”
Last year’s event saw over 120 swimmers take on the 2km swim in Renville. As restrictions are being
lifted and guidelines being created for hosting outdoor sporting events, Atlantic Masters Club have
not given up hope of being able to run a version of the Atlantic Lifeboat Swim at some point in the
coming months. Helen Colfer, chairperson of Atlantic Masters said “the health and safety of our
swimmers and our communities is our number one priority. We are liaising with all relevant
governing bodies to identify what we need to do to hold an event, be it virtual or scaled down, that
could support the RNLI. As a swimming community, we cannot stress enough the gratitude we have
for the work the RNLI do. Our club members are delighted to be able to help them in any way we
can.
For more information about Galway Lifeboat and/or to donate log on to https://rnli.org/find-my-
nearest/lifeboat-stations/galway-lifeboat-station

By Annette Cullen