Race Swami teams with Guadalupe Center

GLENDALE/SALT LAKE CITY (October 28, 2011)— On Friday, Mike McGinley, a retired math teacher from Judge Memorial Catholic High School in Salt Lake City, paid a visit to a RACE SWAMI swim practice at the Steiner West facility in Glendale to talk to athletes about a tutoring project he is involved in at the Guadalupe Center located in nearby Rose Park, the west side swim club's headquarters.

Mr. McGinley has been tutoring students at the Guadalupe Center for months, and quickly figured out he was in dire need of older students to help him teach. RACE SWAMI seemed an appropriate organization to inquire, since part of their mission is to serve its immediate community through service projects. At the same time, Mr. McGinley knew the club founders quite well, so it wasn't much of a problem to ask.

For team founder Mary Chris Finnigan, it seemed the perfect opportunity for her team to get involved in a community-related project. "I thought this would be a perfect opportunity for us to give back to our community and begin to establish a relationship with the Guadalupe Center," she said. "We hope to work with them quite a bit in the future and to make it a lasting bond."

Mr. McGinley has been working with 3rd graders mostly, as he helps them with basic math skills. The students are learning to use the computer lab at the center but what he said they really needed was the one-on-one component—older peers who could directly tutor the kids and help them grasp and understand new skills.

"Kids naturally will have questions," he said. "This gives them that opportunity to ask—and eventually—learn."

Enter RACE SWAMI swimmers. 

"It's the least I could do," said Amelia Wolfgramm, a 15-year old national level swimmer at the club and currently a sophomore at Judge Memorial. "I'm aware of those amazing people you read about who don't think twice about helping others when called upon, and I just wanted to be like them. I'm really excited and honored to be that someone who can help."

"Everyone needs help at some point in their life," added fellow Race Swami swimmer Tessa Hucksteadt, a sophomore at Skyline High School. "I just wanted to help make a difference in someone's life... to help them succeed."

RACE SWAMI plans to begin the tutoring sessions at the Guadalupe Center beginning Tuesday, November 1st, with a second tutoring session scheduled for Thursday, November 3rd. The sessions will be directed by Mr. McGinley and will be about an hour long.

Ms. Finnigan said that RACE SWAMI plans to design a "tutoring week" the first week of every month at the center, which is located near the team's home pool at Northwest Recreation Center in Rose Park.

Race Swami swimmers couldn't be more excited. "Our swimmers were very enthusiastic about helping and I think they will get a lot out of it," she said. "We will start with once a month and see how it goes. We hope to make this a long term commitment on a more frequent basis and we couldn't be more pleased in helping them out."