DVE Swimathon - 31st May 2025

Since 1969, the DVE Aquatic Swimathon has made waves — both in the pool and in the community.
Now in its 54th year, this much-loved annual event brings our swimmers together for a powerful cause: swimming laps for local impact.

On Saturday 31st May, 2025, our swimmers will take to the pool at WaterMarc Aquatic Centre in Greensborough, aiming to complete as many laps as they can within 12 hours — testing their endurance, teamwork, and community spirit.

The Swimathon is our biggest fundraising event of the year. Swimmers collect donations from family, friends, and local businesses, not only to support our club’s future but to continue a long-standing partnership with Berry Street — a vital local charity.

Berry Street’s programs provide essential support to children, young people, and families in Melbourne’s northern suburbs — including Watsonia, Mill Park, Greensborough, Eltham, and Diamond Creek — through family violence recovery, foster care, youth services, and more.

Since our first donation of just $200 back in the 1980s, DVE Aquatic Club has proudly contributed over $72,000 to Berry Street — a legacy we’re determined to keep growing.

Whether you're swimming, donating, or cheering from the sidelines, you’re part of something bigger. Together, we can make every lap count.

You're helping young people like Pippa.
At Berry Street, we work with many children who’ve grown up in unpredictable and unsafe environments. One of those children is Pippa.

By the time she was 10, Pippa had never really had the chance to just be a kid. Her home life was shaped by family violence, and much of her energy went into staying alert and trying to keep herself safe. Things most children take for granted — like playing or relaxing — weren’t part of her world.

When Pippa was placed into foster care, things began to shift. With the support of a caring foster family and specialist services from Berry Street, she started to heal. She still needs ongoing therapy and support, but for the first time, Pippa is beginning to feel safe enough to play, connect, and be herself.

Every year, Berry Street supports hundreds of children and young people in our local community — through foster care, therapeutic programs, and family support services.

By taking part in the DVE Aquatic Swimathon, you’re not just supporting our club — you’re helping kids like Pippa access the care they need to rebuild and move forward.

Thank you for making a real difference.

How You’re Changing Lives
When you support Berry Street, you’re helping children and young people like Pippa rebuild their lives and imagine a future full of new possibilities.
Your donation helps to:
• Heal the trauma many children and young people have experienced
• Address the root causes and long-term impacts of family violence
• Provide safe and stable homes for children who can’t live with their families
• Offer trauma-informed education to children across Australia
• Strengthen families and communities with early and proactive support
Together, we’re creating safer, more hopeful futures — one child at a time.
Learn more by exploring our Berry Street story.

On the day:

- attendees can come and go as they please, when you've had enough you can go home and return (we just need to make sure there is a a swimmer in the pool for the 12 hours)
- your squad swimming laps will go towards your total lap count
- all swimmers attending squad swimming will participate in the swimathon
- on the registration page, you dont have to commit to completing the laps you list down, it is just an estimation
- Registration page is for the swimmer
- only one person from the club is required to be in the pool for the whole 12 hours, (as in one swimmer finishes, another starts, then swaps over when they've had enough or something to eat or drink)
- come down and have some fun with your friends

Entry Fee:

Current DVE Aquatic Members - Nil
Former Diamond Valley, Eltham and DVE Aquatic Members - $10
15 and under non DVE Members - $10

Over 15 non DVE Members - $30

(Entry fee payable before entering the water, 50% goes directly to Berry Street Vic.)

Click here to download the Registration and Sponsorship form and bring with you on the day.

Click here to go to DONATION page to make a donation. Any donations over $2 made via the donation website will generate a tax invoice. Donors reminded to indicate who it is they are sponsoring.

HEAR FROM ELLIE COLE, AM, an Australian retired Paralympic swimmer and wheelchair basketball player.

Thanks to sponsors Sculli Brothers and Bakers Delight