Swim Team Friends,

We look forward to hosting 178 guests this evening at the Mountaire Park pool for our end-of-season awards banquet. As you arrive, some of our volunteers will greet you at the door. Please provide them your name and they will check you off the pre-registered list. For those of you that paid over the $40.00 family cap, the volunteers will have money covering the difference for you. Thanks for your patience there as we worked around the RSVP system. 

The evening will include free swim and some select organized pool games by our coaches. Therefore please bring your bathing suit (adults welcome too!), towel and change of clothes.

Dinner will be provided by Carl's Cafe (bourbon chicken, green beans, mac & cheese, assorted drinks and dessert). The schedule of events is as follows:

• 5:00 PM doors open, free swim, pool games, dinner (please, no early-birds - the event starts at 5:00 PM)
• 6:00 PM – 7:00 PM awards presentation (swimming will not be permitted during awards out of respect for our awards recipients and presenters)
• 7:00 PM – 8:00 PM free swim, pool games

The following awards will be given:

Most Valuable Swimmer

These are the swimmers (1 male and 1 female per age group) who scored the most points and therefore are the most valuable in their age group for individual events at dual meets.

Most Inspirational
This is a new award this year and will go to one individual. Our coaches compiled a list of 8 swimmers (male and female across age groups) whom they felt embodied the ability to inspire confidence, motivation, and a sense of purpose. The nominees in this category have demonstrated a commitment to the team and to the sport. From the coach’s nominated list, our swimmers voted for their top choice. Voting took place through ballots on 6/18 and 6/19 and the final winner will be announced at the banquet.

Andee Poulos Award

For those of that do not know Andee, we hope you will…her story will move you. Andee is a Mountaire Barracuda having swum for the team for 14 years. In 2011 (at the age of 14), Andee had a stroke and for 20 months she bravely pushed through having endured hours of surgery and months of rehabilitation. She even returned to swim for the Barracudas following her injury, an event and story which prompted the creation of the Andee Poulos Award – for courage and determination. Today, at the age of 22 Andee is attending college and with her family’s help, oversees Andee's Army, an Atlanta-based non-profit dedicated to funding the recovery and rehabilitation of children who have sustained brain and spinal cord injuries. Andee is an incredible inspiration and an Atlanta Hero as recently honored by our Atlanta Braves baseball team.

We are pleased to announce that Andee will attend our event and she will share her story with all of you and will present the 2019 Andee Poulos award for courage and determination to a most deserving athlete on our team. Please take a moment to watch her story poignantly captured by 11Alive news.

Susan Wells Stone Award

The Susan Wells Stone award is given to the swimmer who has demonstrated one or more of the ideals of sportsmanship, including fairness, civility, honesty, respect and responsibility. This is the individual who is cheering for their teammates at the end of the lane in meets or practices, who shakes the hand of the competitor in the lane next to them after the race, who encourages and compliments younger and older athletes not necessarily for what they achieved but for what they accomplished along the way. This is the person who relentlessly thinks of others and maintains a spirit of integrity and respect for the sport, their coaches and the spirit for which the season represents.

Volunteer of the Season

The heartbeat of our swim team are our volunteers. These are parents, caregivers, friends and family who relentlessly show up and support our team through action. They roll up their sleeves, take on “unpaid” responsibility, and do it with a smile. Some of these folks are behind the scenes and you don’t even realize the “good” that they do to keep this program running. We are humbled by them and forever grateful for them. It is only fitting that we choose a recipient for “volunteer of the season”…an individual that has gone over and beyond not because they had to but because they sincerely wanted to.

Our team has worked so hard over these past 8 weeks. Let's join together one last time to celebrate the collective spirit that we represent while recognizing the individual contributions of our swim team family.

It has been an honor to swim with you.