This article was written by the six members of the East Overshow Aquatic Club, chronicling their history from 1960-2025. The Y thanks Jane McGill, Holly Rood, Kim Carpenter, John Hancock, Bob Weiler, and Dick Cummings for this contribution and their continued support of the Dynamo Swim Team through a scholarship fund.
The East Overshoe Aquatic Club is a group of three men and three women who swam competitively for the Burlington YMCA for ten years in the 1960s. We swam in the Y’s intra-club competitions for teams such as the Sharks, the Whales, and the Dolphins. We also represented the Burlington Y in regional swim meets in New York, New Hampshire, Massachusetts, Connecticut and Montreal. Our parents funded and often drove us to these meets which instilled in us that contributing to youth in the community is a core element of being an active member of a civil society. The best swimmer among us, John Hancock, reached the heights of being the 13-14 year old Boys 100 yd backstroke New England Champion in 1965. In the summer of 1967, we formed the East Overshoe Aquatic Club to register as a team in the Burlington Tennis Club Invitational Meet. We returned in 1970 and this was our last meet swimming together.
In the 1970s, we each went our separate ways eventually residing in six different locations around the world: Vermont, Maine, New Hampshire, Wisconsin, Germany, and Australia. But after a break of over 20 years, we decided to get the team back together.
Carefully planned to overcome the hurdles of distance, timing, and cost, a reunion of the aquatic club was held in Stowe in 1990. A once in a lifetime weekend was spent at the Mt Mansfield Trout Club tucked in the woods of the Green Mountains of Vermont, reminiscing about our youth, getting to know each other as adults, and listening to each other’s life stories. Laughter, tears, hugs and compassion were the language of friendship over those three days.
Building on the success of the first gathering, we have held subsequent swim team reunions every 5-6 years in Vermont. To continue to meet with friends we knew from when we were only eight years old is a tribute to the strength of our relationship. We lost the first of the team in December 2024 when John passed away. However, we will continue to meet when we can, either virtually or preferably in Vermont.
To honor the pivotal role the Burlington Y played in bringing us together and as the glue that has held us together ever since, we have established the East Overshoe Aquatic Club Scholarship Fund to support young boys and girls to join the Y’s Dynamo swim team. We hope their experiences swimming at the Y will change their lives for the better as it has ours.