For Immediate Release – June 29, 2015
Contact: Len Go 608-556-8195 | Lisa Bauer 608-345-6992
All Stars Shine at 54th Madison All City Swim Meet
Madison, Wis. The buzz is building. You can feel it in the air, and more importantly, in the water.
The All City Swim Meet is coming.
The annual summer Tradition returns July 30 through Aug. 1.
High Point Swim Club is proud to host the event where All Stars Shine. It last hosted the city’s swimmers in 2003, and hundreds of volunteers have been working for months in preparation of the event that is the highlight of the swim season for nearly 2,000 participants from 13 city teams. All recreational swimmers who competed in at least three All City meets can enter, making it a truly citywide event.
The Madison summer tradition, and one of the largest outdoor swim meets in the country, features swimmers from ages 4 to 18. Whether they’re swimming with the Olympics in mind or just for fun, All City is an experience they will never forget.
But it’s more than just swimming.
Together with our partners at Second Harvest Food Bank, our community of 13 pools is working together to raise 150,000 meals to help benefit our local food pantries and programs. There are many ways to help, including cash or check donations at your local participating pools, nonperishable food donations to the food barrels available at participating pools, or the virtual food drive at http://www.secondharvestmadison.org.
Swimmers have also been raising money for the Shelley Glover Foundation through the “Kids Swimming for Kids” program, now in its 10th year. Swimmers help support a community partnership launched by SGF, the Boys and Girls Club of Dane County, Madison Parks and the Irwin A. and Robert D. Goodman Foundation to expand swim lesson opportunities to more Madison children of diverse racial background and lower socio-economic status. Through the partnership, more than 200 participants in the Boys and Girls Club of Dane County summer program are able to receive swim lessons that focus on teaching children how to swim and the lifetime skill of being safe and confident around water. The program is funded in part by SGF’s Kids Swimming for Kids program in which children from swim teams in the All City Swim League obtain pledges and swim laps to raise money. This year more than 600 swimmers from 11 area pools are expected to participate in Kids Swimming for Kids.
The All City Swim Meet organizers would like to thank the meet’s premier sponsors Dental Health Associates and Park Bank. We would also like to thank our platinum sponsors CUNA Mutual Group/TruStage Insurance, ESPN Madison, Madison Investment Advisors, Orthodontic Specialists of Madison, Sanchez Industrial Design, Sound Devices and TDS.
Here are a few story ideas to help with coverage of this Madison tradition. Contact us for more details!
High Point Renaissance: Five years ago, faced with a dwindling membership and growing debt, High Point Pool faced possible closure. But with a renewed commitment from members, and hard work from volunteers, swim team participation has almost doubled, overall numbers are up 40 percent, and the pool’s finances are back in the black. Hosting All City gives all the volunteers at High Point, now in its 22nd year, a chance to shine!
High Point Coaches: Coaching is a family tradition at host pool High Point. All of the current coaches, and most past coaches, all swam for the pool. At our last All City meet in 2003, Jacki Spiel swam for High Point, and she also swam at All City in 1993 when the meet was held at High Point. She then went on to swim in college and now is back coaching at High Point . Several other coaches siblings are currently on the team.
More Family Ties: Swimming at All City has always been a family affair. But with the meet now in its 54th year, more and more it’s becoming multi-generational. Take Tori Horton, who graduated from Memorial High School this year and will swim for Butler University in the fall. Her father Mike competed at All City and her mom works the sidelines as an official. And then there’s Becky (Allrod) Ketarkus. She swam at All City as a member of the West Side Swim Club where she’s been a member since 1985. This year, seven of her children are all competing at All City, also for West Side. And that’s just the beginning! Contact us at to be connected with other great families whose All City traditions cross the generations.
Overcoming Adversity: Grant Disch, an incoming senior at Memorial High School, will be swimming at All City for Parkcrest, as he deals with a brain disorder known as Chiari, which required surgery and constant observation. His high school teammates rallied around him, raising money for research this year, and they will be cheering him on as he competes against the city’s best. Contact us for even more stories of swimmers overcoming adversity!
Costume Party: From angry birds to princesses, cowboys to crayons and everything in between, the most outrageous, creative and fun outfits at All City belong to the coaches for the 13 participating teams. No one seems to know when the tradition of coaches dressing up for swim meets began, but one thing we do know is that it’s never a good idea to use real paint. Hill Farm’s coaches learned that the hard way, when they started to get heatstroke one year and needed solvent to remove the paint.
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