Thank you to the Keiths!

What a great night!

A local swimmer family invited the post-grads over for a team dinner!  I'm overwhelmed with how generous and accomodating they were to our large group.  Over the course of the last few months I've slowly realized how much support our group gets from the age group CW team.  Since the support is rightfully directed to the international (away from home) swimmers on the team, I don't directly see the little things the families do for members of our group.  A great example of this is that the parents of younger swimmers hosted all of the Pro swimmers when they visited from other states and countries, very impressive!

After practice tonight we all carpooled over to the Keiths home to enjoy a home cooked meal.  It was one of the only times our entire group was together in one place.  Since there are three workout groups (Sprint, Middle Distance, Distance), we rarely are in the same place at the same time.  When the offer of a meal entered the equation, you wouldn't be a swimmer if you turned that down!  When we arrived at the Keiths we were greeted with smiles from the whole family.  It was immediately obvious the entire family had chipped in to prepare the house for 13 hungry swimmers.  Drinks and food were awaiting our arrival.  While we waited for a late swimmer or two, we all introduced ourselves, where we were from and when our Olympic Trials were going to occur.  The entire night was just really uplifting.  There was this symbiotic relationship I noticed in all our interactions.  The family was overjoyed to provide some food for potential and current Olympians and we were very happy to have a great meal provided for us.  It's like both groups felt like the other was going above and beyond.  There were lots of "thank you's" than I can count.  The experience was a throwback to my high school days when parents of other swimmers would throw a team dinner.  It was just a great few hours and lots of smiles.  

A big "Thank You" goes out to the Keith family!