Round one recipients - Moranbah Highlanders
Members of the Moranbah Highlanders Swimming Club now have access to a potentially life-saving defibrillator thanks to their successful application in round one of the Community
The club has had a rejuvenation in recent years and the executive are keen to drum up as many new swimmers as they can.
The Highlanders are rightfully proud of the club and the facilities they have access to in Moranbah.
“We moved away from Moranbah and we lived down in Dalby near Toowoomba for a year and a half and we saw how good it is over there. If you compare it to this regional area, we’ve got it good here… what we have available to us and how we utilise it… we’re doing very well,” says Club President Braam Bosman.
“We’ve got an awesome facility, an awesome swimming pool. It’s brand new – it’s not even ten years old, they’ve rebuilt the whole thing. It’s a great facility and we’ve got good swimmers,” he says.
The Highlanders have a proud history and have had swimmers head to state titles every year, with one swimmer also recently competing at nationals.
Club members Trysett le Garde and Braam are full of plans for the future of the club and are committed to making a difference.
Trysett in particular views swimming as more than just a recreational activity.
Kids who are in sport are more connected to the community… when they disengage later they’ve got somewhere to come back to and reengage. It’s good for their health, because they’re doing healthy things, they’ve got healthy practices,
Trysett le Garde, Club member
The tyranny of distance means that help in a medical emergency can sometimes be further away than they’d like.
“We get on coaches, we travel long distances to carnivals. The closest carnival we go to is Dysart which takes us about 45 minutes to an hour to get there. So if anything happened and we had to call 000, you know – there’s not going to be enough time,” says Trysett.
The defibrillator is set to provide peace of mind not just to the Highlanders, but to many clubs in their vicinity. They’ll be putting the defibrillator on their coach when they head to other meets, providing a valuable resource to swimmers and their families across the area.
“I’ve already had other clubs ask if they can borrow it when they go away on coaches. It’ll be a community thing as well,” says Trysett.
“It will be put to good use.”
Round two of the Community Grants Program ends on Monday 31 December 2018.