Good afternoon, Kingsmill Shark Swim Team Families!

Registration
for the 2024 Swim Team Season opens May 1^st – May15th! Spread the word of registration to new
families and friends! We would love to
have this year be the largest swim team participation ever! We are excited to announce that our “Little
Shark Program” is FULL with 23 Little Sharks ready to begin their journey of
joining our swim team! I have included
the Little Shark Families on this email, but please know that the Little Sharks
will not be swimming in the meets discussed below. Instead, you can benefit from this email by
learning of the social events and merchandise.
We do plan to have a Time Trial for the Little Shark Swimmers during the
last week of practice that you won’t want to miss!

This email contains a lot of information regarding the
upcoming 2024 swim season.

Registration:

• It is important to visit our Kingsmill SwimTopia website as everything has been
  updated regarding schedules, meet locations, jobs, RSVPs, and social event
  dates. If you are new to the swim world,
  it also describes how the meet works, and includes pictures of Key Positions
  (such as timers, clerk of course, etc., so you know who you are looking for
  when checking in.
  Kingsmillsharks.swimtopia.com

• It is also important that you turn on the alert notifications
  for SwimTopia in your phone settings.
  Instead of having to refresh your email looking for inclement weather
  information, it will pop up on your phone as an alert. This will help make life easier! All
  inclement weather and emergency messages will be though SwimTopia’s Alert
  system.
• Registration opens May 1^st and closes
  May 15. When you register, please select
  the jobs that best fit your schedule. You are required to have six hours/points
  for the season. The swim team operates with Parent Volunteers, so it is
  critical that we have volunteers in place for the meets to run smoothly. If you
  are unable to work the job you signed up for during registration, or you have
  an emergency situation where it prevents you from showing up to your assigned
  duty, it is your
  responsibility to find your own replacement. Please let the head know the
  name of your replacement. (Heads can be found on the website under Key
  Positions).
• When registering your swimmer this season, there
  has been a VPSU rule change that affects registration.
  VPSU has voted to NOT follow the USA Swimming rules regarding
  gender. VPSU requires
  swimmers to be registered under their birth gender.
• I would encourage all to go ahead and declare your attendance for each
  meet NOW! Declaration of
  attendance is due the Friday before the meet. By doing so, you won’t be in the
  position where your swimmer will not be signed up to swim in the meet.
• Although registration will NOT include a Free
  T-shirt due to the rising cost of insurance and our new payroll system, your
  child will receive a free T-shirt to tie-dye for the Fourth of July. More
  information regarding this event can be found on KingsmillSharksSwimTopia.com. Also, go ahead and sign up to donate items for
  our social events!
• Time trials will be on June 14. This is a swim
  meet with just our swimmers, where we capture their times so the coaches can
  create meet entries. Volunteering at Time Trials is
  MANDATORY if your swimmer(s) is/are participating in the time trials and these
  hours do not count towards six points. Please sign up to help it run efficiently.

Merchandise:

• We are very excited to offer all new merchandise
  for the 2024 season. We encourage
  swimmers to purchase our 2024 team suit to show team unity. We will have suits available to try on during
  Meet the Coaches Night. If you already know your swimmers suit size, you may go
  ahead and order it online (see link below). (Little Sharks do NOT need to buy the team
  suit). We are using Swim Outlet, which
  makes purchasing your bathing suit and merchandise super easy and it will be shipped
  directly to your home. When you buy on-line, KM Sharks receive 3% cash
  back! We have new KM Shark logos and Kristen
  Aaron has done a fantastic job with all of our merchandise items, including
  towels, sweatshirts, T-shirts, trucker hats, towels, goggles, swim parkas, bag,
  zinc and more. All HOME and AWAY
  meets will be a “GREEN-OUT” night where swimmers AND Parents are encouraged to
  wear ALL GREEN! So go ahead and order
  your new swag today! Please see the
  link below to view our store and order your bathing suit.

https://www.swimoutlet.com/collections/kingsmillsharks

Concessions:

• We will have concessions at all home meets. Concessions consists of healthy
  dinner options catered by Custom Culinary Connections, as well as a dessert
  table. Molly Kling, Head of Concessions,
  will be providing a menu for time trials and home meets. We encourage you
  to take the night off from cooking and purchase your dinner from our
  concessions to support the swim team!
• Also, during our home swim meets, we are planning to have a “shark lair”
  (the space where concessions use to be- concessions will be located near the
  baby pool) to encourage our swimmers to sit together under the shade during the
  meet and engage in friendship and games!
  We will be selling decks of cards, jacks, dice and activity kits to
  purchase at concessions. Swim team is about making friends and remembering the
  great times during the swim meet. Please encourage your children to put down their devices and enjoy friendship.

Social Events:

• Popsicles in the Park is our first event, May 4^th from 3-5! This is a great opportunity to learn about
  registration and have a popsicle with friends!
  If you have a friend in the neighborhood who is new or has never swam
  for the Kingsmill Sharks, please encourage them to join and share our SwimTopia
  website with them so that they may register.
  We will also have a QR code to shop on our website for merchandise. In
  addition to popsicles, we will have a bathing suit swap! If you have an old bathing suit
  from the swim team that doesn’t fit your child anymore, please contact Holly
  Jeffers to arrange a drop off your swimsuit at [email protected]. Even
  though we have new swimsuits this year, it would be a great opportunity for
  those kids to wear these swimsuits during practices for a cheap price! Little Sharks could benefit from this too! All proceeds will go back into funding our
  swim team.
• Meet the Coaches Night will be very important to attend as Kelly
  and I will be going over important information regarding the season. I will not be sending
  out constant reminder e-mails as everything is
  on the website. Instead, EVERYTHING
  is on the website and alert notifications will be sent through Swimtopia, so
  please accept these alerts in your phone settings. After going over information for the season,
  we will meet our Coaches; Head Coach Matt, and Assistant Coaches Jen, Owen,
  Ashton, Jorge, Addy and Sara! The
  Little Sharks are encouraged to attend this event. Bathing Suit
  fittings, merchandise, t-shirts and swim caps will be for sale in the
  lobby. During the informational section,
  we will encourage our younger swimmers to participate in a shark coloring sheet
  contest! The crowd will choose the
  winner based on cheers and clapping.

• We are looking for donations and volunteers to help with some
  social events including the Fourth of July parade and Family Fun Night. Our website has all the social events listed,
  so please sign up to donate items or time. (This will take the place of any
  extra Sign-up Genius).

Sponsorships

• We are looking for corporate sponsorships to support the
  swim team. Since our entire financial budget is based on swimmer registration
  numbers, corporate sponsorships will help secure our budget and provide
  critical funds to support great social events, payroll, VPSU dues for ribbons, insurance
  and other costs. Please
  visit our Kingsmill SwimTopia website under the links tab to view the application for corporate
  sponsorship. Application Deadline
  is JUNE 1^st!!

Pool cards

• Pool cards are required for every swimmer.

Leadership opportunities.

• If you are interested in becoming a stroke and turn
  judge, a score, deck referee, or another lead position in the team, please let
  us know. We are looking for new leadership as our continues to rejuvenate with
  younger families. It is imperative that our swim team has young families take
  on leadership roles so that the swim team will stay strong and last for years
  and years.

• Also looking into the future, our president term is for
  three years. If anyone is interested in becoming the next president, please let
  us know!

Thank you again for reading this entire email and we look
forward to seeing everyone at Meet the Coaches Night!

Jenn and Kelly Treiber

KM Swim Team Presidents