8 year-old Gwen Skillern (Blue Group) recently visited the Nica Nadadores in Central America. The Skillerns help sponsor one of the Nica Nadadores swimmers and Gwen also keeps in touch with a pen pal.

We asked Gwen to share a little about her experience with the team.

I had the best time working out with the group.  All of the swimmers were very kind and welcoming to me.  Even though only one of the swimmers was able to speak with me in English, we all communicated and worked together.  They WORK HARD at the Nica Nadadores!!  Coach Timmy had us do a very long warm up, and then we worked on free, back and fly.  I learned some great new drills!  I was excited when the coach asked me to demonstrate some of the drills.  At the end of practice we had to clean up the pool and remove the lane ropes, but then, Coach Timmy let us play for a while.  I enjoyed getting to know a swimmer named Samantha, and learning about her life.

My afternoon with the Nica Nadadores was an amazing opportunity for me.  I realized how lucky I am to have access to a good education and everything I need.  I also learned that even though these swimmers live far away and have a very different life than me, we are very much the same – we are all athletes --- WE ARE SWIMMERS!

 I cannot wait to go back to visit my new swim friends!

 More About Nica Nadadores