February Volunteer of the Month

Beth Stannard's (nee McGuire)  interest in diving started in 1980 as a child;  she went back to the Wessex Diving Club in 1993 to help for an hour a week …..

Shortly afterwards Beth took a Level 1 teaching qualification and by the time she took a Level 2 exam in 1996 she was the main coach for most of the sessions!  She has been the Club Secretary for the last 20 years.

During this time she re-established a squad of divers and introduced weekly gym and trampolining sessions and once a month organised 3 hour sessions on a Saturday morning.

Beth organises all competitions in the County and in the last year has run an after school club for a local school, introducing a further 45 children to the sport of diving. She has developed links with Southampton Diving Academy to give further training opportunities for both divers and coaches.  Beth also supports other local swimming clubs when she occasionally takes a diving session to introduce swimmers to an alternative aquatic activity.

Over the years Beth has been Wessex Diving Club President, acted as Treasurer as well as being Secretary, and for all these reasons she was awarded the Dorset County ASA Volunteer Award 2017 for Services to Aquatics.