A [Short] Social Media Story: "Thanks & Giving" @AquaTally
I’ve rediscovered swimming laps after a VERY long hiatus. When we were planning our return to Chicago, I promised myself that I’d join the DePaul University Fitness and Recreation Center, under the alumni rate, because “the Ray” has a six lane indoor pool.
Well, like the turtle, I’m making progress to strengthen and increase stamina, I swim laps for 20-30 minutes about 3 times per week. Walking or biking back and forth is a damn good workout. (Please note that I have hypothyroid-induced asthma so just swimming one length of the pool might be considered an achievement.)
Occasionally, I’ll drop a tweet about my swimming activities, a few weeks ago, someone noticed.
The inventor of @AquaTally sent me a reply — kinda sales-y, but I checked out his website.
Aqua Tally, invented by Cody Ramthum, is a swimming lap counting which works like an abacus. “Sticks to the side of pool and swim away.” I passed along a tweet because I thought the @AquaTally was a pretty cool device and serious swimmers might find it useful.
Like-minded people, helping each other.
This week, I received a tweet from @AquaTally informing me that I would receive one as a gift. Now, I’m not anywhere near the number of laps (yet) where I think I’ll lose count of my laps.
So I dropped Cody an email expressing my gratitude and asked that it be donated to a local youth swim club/school instead. (Having a device like this when I was on high school swim team sure would have been helpful when the coach said we didn’t do enough laps.)
Here’s the GIVING part of my story:
Cody told me that he’s donated 10 Aqua Tally’s to the Sumner County YMCA (Tennessee). Cody has also been awarded Volunteer of the Year at said “Y” for recognition of his time helping children in his community learn to swim and compete in meets. He invented the Aqua Tally while training for an Iron Man competition to keep track 2+ mile distance.
Did I mention 10% of each sale is donated to the YMCA.
Cody, you are an inspiration. Thank you.
If you’re a swimmer, check out the Aqua Tally (http://www.aquatally.com) for more information.
