Waynewood Dolphins News 

(5/11/24) 

Great seeing everyone who came out on Super Sunday for swimsuits or to learn more about our team. We’re excited to have over 240 swimmers enrolled for summer so far. This includes many names we know from previous seasons and some new ones. We’re just a little more than two weeks from the first practice! 

In This Message: 

1. Eat to support the Dolphins swim team! 
2. Team sponsorship opportunities available 
3. Volunteer Credit for WRA Pool Clean Up 5/19 
4. NOW is a great time to register (if you haven’t already) 
5. Spirit wear reminder 

1) Eat to support the Dolphins swim team! 

Mark it on your calendar. The Dolphins swim team has partnered with eatery Honeygrow (Mount Vernon Plaza) for a team fundraiser on Friday, May 24. Families can get delicious food and support the team by dining or ordering food while utilizing team promo code “GIVE149” and ordering at honeygrow.com, in-store at the kiosk, or with the honeygrow app. The Dolphins team will receive 20% of all order proceeds using the GIVE149 code on May 24. 

Our fundraiser has a GroupRaise page with tools to promote this event on social media as well as an opportunity to show your Dolphins spirit by declaring your participation. Our goal is to have 50 families participate. We’ll send out a reminder on May 24. Please consider participating to support the team!

2) Team sponsorship opportunities available 

The Dolphins are seeking a few new sponsor partnerships to support our swimmers and spread recognition about businesses who support our community. We’re asking Waynewood families to spread the word and connect us to businesses who you’d recommend to a neighbor and would be interested in supporting our kids. Consider the retailers and restaurants, medical and professional service providers, home service contractors, and others who might be interested in raising awareness about their business and community involvement. 

This is an opportunity for businesses to gain visibility among not only Waynewood pool families but also other Mount Vernon area pools and Northern Virginia teams who’ll visit our website and swim at Waynewood this summer. The IM Invitational meet in July alone, hosted at the Waynewood pool this year, will feature over a dozen visiting teams. 

Sponsorship opportunities offer businesses inclusion on our banner and signs displayed at meets; a linked logo on the front page of our website for the remainder of 2024 (and into the beginning of summer enrollment for 2025); and other opportunities. Our sponsorship opportunities are affordable and we have a number of business partners who have sponsored us for many years. Please refer or connect any potentially interested sponsors to our lead volunteer Melanie DeMaria ([email protected]) or email Team Reps. While we can welcome new sponsors anytime, we can only include businesses who sponsor us before Memorial Day on our printed signs and banner for this season. 

3) Volunteer Credit for WRA Pool Clean Up 5/19 

The Dolphins have partnered again with WRA on an opportunity for families to earn an early shift credit that counts toward your season volunteer obligation. 

Waynewood Dolphin families can earn one shift credit for families that send at least one family member for a shift at WRA Spring Clean Up: register here. If all roles are filled, email Pool Chair Susan Ulsamer and then just show up to work and earn your credit ([email protected]). The WRA Spring Clean Up will take place from 1:30 pm until finished on Sunday, May 19. 

Beyond helping your community, this is a great opportunity to demonstrate that your family is dedicated to working toward fulfilling your commitment in case you have difficulty later this summer. The team’s volunteer policy is available here in our Parent Handbook. 

4) NOW is a great time to register 

Every summer, a handful of returning families – including some who make huge volunteer contributions to our team – miss the priority registration date (May 24 this year). A spousal miscommunication or weekend schedule disruption is often to blame. While this doesn’t keep your swimmers off the team it does significantly delay their team shirt, take away the chance to order a personalized swim cap, disrupt important information we’ll be sending about swim team, and can even cause a swimmer to miss a practice. 

If you believe you’ve already registered, you can double check by looking in your Swimtopia account (available when you login on the team website) for a 2024 swimmer “affiliation” or looking for the email confirmation that should have come through when registering. 

On or around May 24, we’ll send a final email to our team list from 2023 (why you’re still getting these emails if you haven’t registered for 2024) and from that point forward only those who have registered for 2024 will receive any communications from the team. Make sure you’re registered and don’t get left behind! 

Here is the link for registration – https://waynewood.swimtopia.com/ (look for the red “Register Now” icon). Please remember that only swimmers registered with WRA as being from dues paying households of current WRA members and WRA approved users are eligible to participate. 

Returning families are asked to log on using the same email as last year. Please do not create a new account. If you have forgotten your password or are encountering a problem, please use the forgot password function or email Team Reps. Duplicate accounts cause problems with team data keeping and must be canceled/corrected. When registering swimmers for the first time, please put the name your swimmer wants to be called in the "first name" section, even if that name is really their middle name or nickname (even though the directions in Swimtopia indicate otherwise).

5) Spirit wear reminder 

https://wwdolphins2024.itemorder.com/shop/home/

In order to get everything in this year for both the swimmers and parents to enjoy sporting at the meets and throughout the entire season, all orders must be made by May 26. This should get us our swag in time for early season meets. 

Questions? 

Don’t hesitate to contact our Team Reps, James & Genna, at [email protected] 

Go Dolphins! 

Waynewood Dolphins Communications