Gerry Aiken has swam in Cherry Bowl and been on the sidelines as a parent and supporter.
Now, as meet director of Cherry Bowl 2015 at Barclay Farm Swim Club, he is in planning on making the 56th edition of Cherry Hill’s biggest swim meet the best yet.
Barclay Farm Swim Club will be the host of the Cherry Bowl 2015, a swim meet pitting kids as young as 7 and 8 years old up to high school ages in races with all 13 of Cherry Hill’s swim clubs represented. The meet will take place on Saturday, July 25 beginning at 8:15 a.m.
The meet has had generations of swimmers come through. Aiken’s family is a prime example of this. Gerry swam in the meet as a child, and his two kids, Nathaniel and Christian, now participate annually.
“It’s absolutely one of the best things to happen on a yearly basis,” Aiken said. “It was an event that I’ve always looked forward to.”
A lot of preparation goes into the event before the kids hit the pool. Hosting duties for the Cherry Bowl are set in a rotation, with each swim club hosting once every 13 years. Knowing its hosting duties far in advance allowed Barclay Farm to get a head start on planning this year’s event.
“We actually started with a knowledge transfer with Wexford Leas and Woodcrest going back about 18 months,” Aiken said. “Solid preparations started at the end of last summer, around Labor Day.”
Putting on the event requires a large number of volunteers. Aiken said the vast majority of volunteers are Barclay Farm members with other swim club members and non-members from the community also giving their time.
“For all of the preparation task, we’re running about 30 volunteers right now,” Aiken said. “The event itself is upward of about 100 people.”
Cherry Bowl is more than just a swim meet. The event includes numerous crafters, business vendors, food companies and others. Sponsors are key in putting together the event each year.
The popularity of Cherry Bowl has made the event very attractive to sponsors. Aiken said the amount of interest Barclay Farm has received from prospective vendors and sponsors this year has been unprecedented.
“We have shattered all sponsorship records this year because of the involvement with CHAP and getting the word out about the entire community,” he said.
The event’s popularity stems from it being a community gathering of all of Cherry Hill’s communities. One area epitomizing this idea is Tent City, an area set aside at each Cherry Bowl where each swim club sets up a tent as an area for swimmers to hang out when they are not in the pool. The area is full of activity, with swimmers and parents reuniting with friends they may not have seen since the previous year’s event.
“The Tent City area is one of the most social scenes you’ll ever see kids in,” Aiken said. “Then you have all of the parents interacting. These are people you see in a business setting, in the athletic associations, the civic associations. They are able to reconnect there.”
The event serves as an opportunity for former participants to connect as well. Aiken recalls meeting with old friends he competed with at previous Cherry Bowls.
“We have a huge contingent of old swimmers and old Barclay families coming back to participate in some way,” he said.
For those swimming, it’s considered one of the biggest events of the year, with each swimmer trying to do their best to put their swim club on top of the standings. In 2014, Erlton Swim Club won the Cherry Bowl for the second time in three years.
For everyone involved, however, the event is more than just finishing in first place. Aiken said there’s a sense of pride in representing your swim club at the event.
“It wasn’t the success that mattered. It was the competition and the fun and the sportsmanship that took place,” he said.
All members of the community are invited to attend Cherry Bowl. The event begins with the opening ceremony and parade at 8:15 a.m. The meet begins after the parade and continues through the afternoon. Admission is $7 per person. For more information on the event, visitwww.cherrybowl.org.
