Swim team celebrates in sweet way

Matt Unrau

After hauling in a second place trophy at the state swim meet two weekends ago it was time to celebrate for the Plains Piranhas. On Thursday evening swimmers and their families entertained the community with an open swim and some sweet desserts.

In an annual get together and fundraiser the Piranhas give community members a “feel of what swim team is,” according to Swim Team President Nawatha Campbell. “It’s just a time for community fellowship.” The piece of education was especially important this year as the team only sported 17 swimmers driving the Class B school into a Class C swimming team.

Campbell says the main fear for families is that they would have to drive to all of these far away meets at places like Hamilton, Colombia Falls and Roundup. However, Campbell says to qualify for the state meet the team only needs to attend two meets during the year, an easy accomplishment considering the fact that Plains has its own annual meet.

But, more than this the fun family atmosphere at the get together showed a living example of what the swim team has to offer. “It’s a family time. This weekend in Roundup (state swim meet) we camped together, ate together and the kids played together,” says Campbell.

As the team hopes to see more members through the get together they have good reason to be hopeful as approximately 25 kids could be found swimming in the pool, eight more than the total number for the team. Because of the small numbers on the team and the young age of the swimmers, this was the first year that the dessert social was not accompanied with a sidekick swim. In a sidekick swim, swimmers partner with community members who pledge a certain amount of money for each lap swam. However, Campbell opes to get it started again with a potential reunion in the future. Campbell says a reunion would be ideal since the team’s history goes back for 30 years.

On the fundraising side of coin, this is the smallest fundraiser for the team, raising only $300. It is one of three fundraisers for the team. Earlier this year you could see the swimmers trade in their bathing suits for caution and checkered flags. In an effort to raise funds the kids flaged at the motocross track, which included little Genna Deschamps waving the checkered flag at the end of races. Their other fundraiser for the year will be their booth at the Sanders County Fair.

The team hopes to raise money to buy new suits for the team, new starting blocks for their home meet and money to pay their coach. The team will have an award ceremony on the 20th at the Plains Pool. Kelli Nance is the only retiring member of the team and has been a strong member for the last 11 years.