Army of volunteers help make swim meet, community event possible
A small crew of middle-aged men rushed around making breakfast sandwiches as fast as possible Saturday, July 28, at Covered Bridge Swim Club.
Forty-five minutes after the first race kicked off at the 2018 Cherry Bowl, they had already assembled and distributed around 400 sandwiches.
“These guys have been killing themselves,” said Joe Graffeo, who was in charge of the food portion of the event.
Graffeo and the other guys manning the grills were part of a group of 175 volunteers that helped organize and facilitate Cherry Bowl, one of Cherry Hill’s largest community events.
Organizers said before the event they were expecting around 2,000 spectators and about 600 youth swimmers from Cherry Hill’s 13 clubs to participate in the competition.
“It’s a lot,” said Missy Lang, who headed the 2018 Cherry Bowl committee. “We’ve been planning for over a year.”
Bob Hunter, who helped oversee the facilities and operations for the meet, said there were plenty of logistical challenges. First, Covered Bridge Swim Club, nestled in a residential neighborhood, isn’t designed to handle thousands of people, Hunter noted.
“It was eight months of planning, and then probably three months of doing,” he added. “We started preparing the pool for this in April.”
Parking is normally an issue at Cherry Bowl, so organizers said the club tried to plan ahead. Barclay Early Childhood Learning Center, which is nearby, opened its parking lot and golf carts were on hand to shuttle people who have difficulty walking, Lang said.
Gates opened for the meet at 6 a.m., but many volunteers, including Joe Fabian, arrived even earlier.
“You’re giving back,” said Fabian, a member of Covered Bridge Swim Club who was helping with traffic control near the club’s entrance.
“The camaraderie is great, and there’s civic pride for your neighborhood,” added volunteer Stephen Fox, of Downs Farm Swim Club, which will host next year’s Cherry Bowl.
Recruiting volunteers was not difficult, several organizers said. Lang said people “came out of the woodwork” to be involved in Cherry Bowl, while volunteer coordinator Karen McGlinn said organizers only had to send out an email when they needed extra help in the days prior to the meet.
“I’m very impressed with the level of volunteerism that’s being shown,” McGlinn said during the event. “Everyone has shown up.”
“They’re putting aside their regular lives, and they devote their time here,” added Jay Watts, who helped coordinate the officiating, scoring and awards.
Watts worked with all 13 swim clubs to help manage the meet and said it takes “an army” to organize Cherry Bowl.
“It’s a lot of parts,” he said. “It’s like a puzzle.”
George Muscat, a member of Graffeo’s grill gang, said he wanted to help even though his kids aren’t competing in the races. It’s a tradition for the community, he added.
“Cherry Hill’s known for swimming,” Muscat said.
