November 17/10             A Swim meet fairy tale   

This story is entitled,                                          " King Dale and The Wizard"

       Once upon a time there was a King named Dale (meet manager) Kurta, who ruled in the land of Sherwood. There came a day when the leader of the children, Coach Chris came to him and said, "These kids need a sporting event where they can test their skills among other kids from beyond our realm." The king being a benevolent ruler said, "I will grant you this request" and he set off to do just that.

         First, he went to his advisors and asked, "Who will help me with this sporting event?" and brave Mario (assistant meet manager) Kulas, stepped forward and declared "I will help with this thing!"

So, they toiled for weeks and months and after one million and two hours of preparation the day came for the big event. 

    But alas, General Ian Williams leader of the set up army was not there to lead, for Ian was a hero to many  and was needed for very important duties in far off lands. So King Dale cried out ,"Oh how will we set all this up in time?" And then, as if in a fairy tale, in road assistant general Brad "the president" Murray on his trusty steed, followed closely behind by the set up army of parents and children alike, and he said " We will help with this thing!"
They whirled through that spot like a great wind of change and by twelve noon on November 13th King Dale was heard to say, "Hey, this actually looks pretty good".

    And then they came. They came from near and far.They came all the way from the Southern lands of the Red Deer to the Northern Fort areas. They came as an onslaught  and King Dale wondered who could organize such a mob. Who could possibly be patient enough, organized enough , smart enough  and foolhardy enough to take on such a task. Then from the mystical lands came the marshaling maidens and lads. Christine Reeves,Tamara Wirachowsky, Jeff and Betty Palmer, Peggy Morrison, Kristina Schultz, Laura Smith, Gina Mancini, Gale Fuller, Doris Piplica and Carson Golly , the youngest of the marshal lads, and their fearless leader, head marshal, Margie Grant, and they said, "We will help with this thing."They waved their magic marshal wands and all children lined up and headed off to race with marked precision. And parents were heard to say, "Hey ,this meet is ahead of schedule!"

    As they came up to race King Dale asked, "How will we know who wins? Who could possibly keep track of all these races?" For this he looked to the royal scholars, Jim Schamber, Tim Janzen, Brad Murray and Marv Toma, and they of course had the answer. They plugged in their scholarly gadgets and behold, all the numbers appeared from above, and all declared in wonder and amazement, "Look! the score board is actually working ."

    And so the races began amidst much fan fare, bag pipes, singing and observance. They splashed and flew through he water. There was a grand feast prepared by the royal chefs, Nicole VanKuppeveld and Shirley Froese and all were happy and fed.  

    There were ribbons and metals that rained down from Lori Murray and Janice Williams, the awards goddesses up high and prizes and programs made available to all by Terri Nobert and her lovely mother Shirley Davis, 50/50 ticket merchant wonder.

    Things were going well until there came a time when it appeared as if some swimmers would have to be in two places at one time. But "who could perform such magic ?" thought King Dale. Then POOF! There appeared all sparkly in white shoes and pants, from the far off exotic land of India, a wise and worldly wizard named Joe. A wizard so wise that surely he could help with this thing. For this wizard had made this kind of magic before. The wizard took a simple pencil and paper and within moments it was as time was transformed and all swimmers were in all pools at all the right times. 
The wizard and his sparkly shoes sprinkled the meet with all manner of magical wizard dust and lent order to any chaos that even tried to appear.

    All was cheery at the spectacular event and as the meet came to a close King Dale became melancholy because he realized that not all the subjects in the land of Sherwood had had a chance to attend. They had not all seen Andrew and Judie Swinton, Rob Chmilar, Barry Saretsky, Sarah Mihaichuk and Kenna Polowy step up and become official, officials, officially. They would never hear Gavin Vankuppeveld say " take your mark, BEEP" for his first time , or experience a disqualification from brand new Stroke and Turners Ryan Reeves and Greg Fuller.They would never get a timing sheet from the new Chief timer Diane Martin.They did not see Tim VanderLeek rock that Safety Marshal vest or hear the golden tones of Bruce (can you hear that?) Hillman announcing yet another disqualification.They would not get to see Wanda Zwaan prove to her son that she was the roughest toughest , root'nest toot'nest stroke and turner in the whole wild wild west.

    But alas all good things must come to and end and so did this great event. King Dale was left looking back at just what  it had taken to enrich the lives of his youngest subjects. "Was it worth it ?" he thought.

    It took an Army, Maids and Lads. It took Scholars , Chefs and Goddesses. It took Poliquins , McKays ,  and Whitesides. It took Geva Bester ready for the call, Caroline Blake and Donna Hender making the call Lisa Carr flying in and  Wirachowskys ready to do any job. It took Legaspis x2 , Smiths x2 , Scratchs x2 , Golys x 3, Mike Marcin running about and Chris MacDougall walking on water. It took Elfords thinking about the next big party. Even subjects from other lands came to help.There were  Olympians (38 sessions worked), Keyanos ( 25 sessions worked) and Pirates all working in a spirit of cooperation. It took all of this and one magical wizard named Joe Kozell.
Surely they all thought it was worth it. They were there. But still he pondered.

    Then he saw it, as if a light in the fog.The convincing sign. He saw the ones who had been helped now stepping up to help. He saw Nicole Schamber, Lauren VanKuppeveld and Kevin (nice yellow bandana) Labonte, all still swimmers themselves taking on the roll of volunteer and helping other swimmers realize their goals. These surely were loyal and worthy subjects and so King Dale decided that for these and for all the kids who are and will some day be just like them it was most truly and  surely worth every minute.

    And King Dale declared," Let there be more great swim events in the Realm. Let the next one take place in the land of Sherwood from February 25th to 27th."

    The army descended in yet another whirl, and the area was left as if nothing had happened. 
The wizard packed up his sparkly white shoes to keep them safe for another day. And so ends the tale of  King Dale and the Wizard.

Thank- you for reading and for being players in this theatre.

I remain ever impressed with you all,

Your humble and grateful Jester of the Court,
Patty ( where did that clipboard go)  Gau
Silvertide Officials

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