U.S. Masters Swimming June Krauser Communications Award

Recipient:	Karlene Denby
Year:	2016
LMSC:	Gulf

After serving on the Gulf LMSC board for a few years, Karlene was asked to take on a new position as “editor” of a LMSC newsletter. Starting from scratch, she created a staff of contributing editors, beginning with the Fitness Chair. She encouraged that person to develop events that might appeal to the over 60% of the membership that did not attend pool competitions. Two programs, “Gulf Swim University” (logging miles during a 4-month period)) and “400 Kick for Time” became popular events and the results were included in the newsletter.

Karlene saw an opportunity for the newsletter to include stories about diet, nutrition, and exercise, so she recruited a fellow swimmer and professional nutritionist to write articles, which included topics titled “Get Lean in 2016” and “Nutrition 101 for Athletes”. Karlene recognized USMS Top 10 and All American swimmers in the newsletter and she promoted Coaching Certification clinics and Adult Learn to Swim classes as they became available. She also wrote articles about LSMC teams and encouraged others to contribute articles about Nationals, Zone, local meets and USMS Annual Meetings.