Parting gift comes out of reunion

TRICKLE DOWN: Former Gonville Swim Club members Don Adams and Jane Lowe gift leftover reunion money to the younger brigade at the Wanganui Swim Club, Henry Carrver and Jaime Scimanski.PHOTO/STUART MUNRO

SAD GOODBYES turned to warm hellos for young and old in Wanganui this week.

The defunct Gonville Swimming Club gifted leftover money from its final reunion to the Wanganui Swim Club and Gonville School.

Reunion committee chairman Don Adams said the two organisations were obvious choices to benefit from the windfall after the final goodbyes were said.

The Gonville Swim Club wound up and the Tawa St pool shut up shop in 1996, more than 80 years after its inception in 1911. The club then merged to become what is now the Wanganui Swim Club.

Reunion committee member and the coach of the Wanganui team for eight years, Jane Lowe, agreed the leftover money was best left for the younger generation.

The Wanganui Swim Club received the $350 lion's share, while Gonville School received $200.

"We didn't expect to have anything left over from the reunion, but then again we didn't really have any idea how many would turn up. But really there was no better recipients for the leftover money," Adams and Lowe said.

The Labour Weekend reunion attracted 90 people

and entry money and raffles over the weekend made up the bulk of the reunion funds.

Wanganui Swim Club board member Neil Forlong and coach Andy McLay both welcomed the gift.

"We are just glad the Gonville members decided to think of us - it is especially welcome when the team is travelling to meetings. That can be an expensive business," they said.