Swim meet at Decorah Pool brings over 600 people to town

Timers set up under a tent awning

What does it take to organize the Conference Swim Meet for the Decorah Swim Team and the eight other teams in its conference?  A lot of volunteer hours, according to the people who helped to organize the 300 swimmers and 300 spectators who flocked to the Decorah Swimming Pool on Saturday.

Kris Heffern, Mary Lea, Nikki Lillegraven, Randy Imoehl and Steph Folkedahl were among the parents helping to organize the 8-hour event.  They divided the responsibilities among several committees, then each team was responsible for finding a certain number of workers.  That made the task easier for the Decorah group, although it was still responsible for set up and tear down.

"It's gone very well," said Heffern on Saturday.  She added that the work was made easier by contributions from area businesses, including Bemiss Distributing, Decorah Chevrolet, Larry's Plumbing & Heating and Iowa Rotocast.  The Decorah Parks & Recreation Department was a huge help as well.

The conference swim meet is rotated among the nine towns in the conference--meaning Decorah can now relax until 2020.

The meet drew a large crowd