Hanika's Stories

  December 14th 2023, the day finally arrived. We were going to Aruba! My heart was pumping with excitement. It was a 30 minute drive from my house to the airport. When we reached the airport we took a shuttle bus which took another 10 minutes. At the check in counter I was already thinking about the beach and sipping coconut water. I expected Aruba to be the same as Hawaii. Once we landed at Aruba we took a taxi to our hotel. The weather was perfect. We stayed at the Hilton Aruba and Caribbean resort. The resort was huge!  On the island, we went on a UTV tour and we learned so many cool facts about Aruba and saw many fun places as well. We went to a Natural pool and inside the cave some people were cliff jumping. The ride on the UTV was really fun. We later went to the only lighthouse on the island and I went all the way to the top and saw pretty much the whole island. Finally, we went to a really nice beach to cool down and end our tour. During my stay, I learnt many things...

  I am so happy to share my lovely conversation with Laurie Karr. She is the founder/owner of the Buckeye Swim Club. I have been a part of the Buckeye swim club for the past 3 years. It was a very engaging conversation with her. I was intrigued by her journey and learnt a lot. I couldn't wait to start writing this blog. Here are the questions I asked: 1. How long has your journey been building the Buckeye swim club and what were some of the first challenges you faced when you started, after you got your first 50 swimmers and now? Laurie started the business in 1989 as a winter program for summer league teams. Laurie’s club did not have a name. In 1995, her team was invited to go down to The Ohio State and become the Buckeye swim club. Laurie had 150 swimmers at that time and they did really well for a long time. The Ohio State decided to build a new recreation center and the teams that were renting the place could not rent it anymore so there was no place to practice. Laurie’s team...