I would like to nominate the 2022 NTP leadership team (Catharine Myung, Glenn Thomas, Hernando Herrera, Ian McDonough, Juene Rader, Jules Bilowich, Julie Billingsley, Kyoko Kawai, Lauren Pittenger and Melani Robinson) for the Club Member of the Year. Each member contributed in various ways, and without each contribution we could not deliver what we were able to offer to the 2022 New Triathlete Program.
Catharine and Juene took care of the weekly newsletter (for 21 weeks). “Newsletter Monday” was always “Challenge Monday” because additions/changes to the newsletter usually happened at the last minutes every Monday. They also took care of social media to keep NTP FB and Instagram lively and informative!
Glenn made himself available to answer/advise about any bike questions from NTP participants. He took care of all bike clinics (Bike 101/ Bike buying/Bike Handling/ Bike Maintenance). He also started the Wednesday evening NTP ride at Hains Point and his legacy ride has been continued by NTP graduates. He also acted as DC Tri Club “MacGyver” to solve bike mechanic problems NTP participants encountered during the group rides.
Jules coordinated group workouts and continued Glenn’s legacy Wednesday evening ride with 2022 NTP participants. She also worked with Hernando to coordinate the NTP mentor and mentee arrangements.
What a blessing to have swim instructors/experts in the leadership team! Julie and Ian provided additional swim clinics to NTP beyond the regular March swim clinic. Ian also put together a “resource document” to provide additional insight into triathlon training and goal race preparation.
In the Spring of 2022, we were still facing “Covid” challenge to provide socializing opportunities. Melani was in charge of organizing Happy Hour at the venue where participants could feel comfortable socializing under the “Covid” alert environment. Also Melani and Lauren’s presence supporting various clinics and events (bike handling, swim clinic, transition clinic, etc.) were incredibly helpful.
Bottom line is that the team used each person’s strengths and represented the DC Tri Club to pass on our enthusiasm about triathlon to the class of 2022 NTP!
Kyoko
