Celebrating Books, Bakes and Swimming Festivals: The 2024 Lido Round-Up!
At the heart of the Lido is our fantastic community - our swimmers, volunteers, parents, children and visitors from far away all make the Lido a special place to be. This year has seen the successful return as well as the rise of new and exciting projects at the Lido, from our first ever community gala to a full calendar of local artists’ exhibits. As we start the countdown to 2025, take a look at our annual highlights and sneak a peek at what we have in store for next year…
1. Bake Sale and Second Hand Goggles Fundraisers
We kicked off the year with the best way to fix post-festivity blues - cake! In this year’s effort to tackle waste, we have collected old and discarded swim equipment and offered it out in exchange for £1 donations, as a way to give the items a second life. Thanks to the London Fields User Group, the Lido held four bakes and second-hand swim equipment sales this year, raising a whopping total of over £2,500 for charity!
2. International Women's Day
An important date in our calendar, IWD 2024 saw a returning showcase of the Lido’s women with a new set of profiles on our inspirational swimmers, visitors and staff. Naomi, our resident Swim Doctor, designed limited edition pink swim hats for our March fundraiser for Solace, a charity that supports women and children who have suffered domestic abuse. Our generous customers took up the cause and, by the end of the fundraising period, Solace reported donations reaching over £1,200! Work for IWD 2025 has already begun, with a new set of profiles already under way.
3. Lido Swimathon 2024
Bigger and better than ever, we hosted 151 swimmers across the Swimathon weekend. Continuing the tradition, Team Lido took part and did its own 5k swim, which raised £385 for Cancer Research and Marie Curie. Our aim for next year is to double the distance with two Lido teams swimming 5k each!
4. Festival of Swimming
On the Summer Solstice, we ran our first Festival of Swimming - a community swim gala with 78 participants of all age groups. For many of them, it was their first ever gala, which ended in a fun celebration with a steel band, team relays, inflatable races and glitter tattoos! We also hosted SWANS goggles at the event, who donated 10% of all sales proceeds to St Joseph's Hospice.
5. Children’s Book Project
In the autumn, we teamed up with the Children’s Book Project - a charity working to distribute books to children in book poverty. Our collection point has reached over 300 books, all thanks to the kindness of our visitors. The collection is ongoing, so if you have children’s books that you are no longer using, please bring them our way!
6. Project Search Internships
We have been very pleased to host our first 3-month placement intern, who has been learning and working as a lifeguard. Taking on duties from cleaning, to customer service, to learning how to supervise the pool, our intern has become truly integrated into the team and we wish them all the best going forward into their chosen career! 2025 will see another intern joining us for the first term, before we get into the busy summer period.
Thank you for all your support this year - here's to even better and brighter highlights in 2025!