Joan Nagle selected for Volunteer Award at the 37th Provincetown Swim for Life & Paddler Flotilla set for September 7, 2024
/Joan Nagle has been on a lifelong journey to bring aqua aerobics and swimming to the community, including teaching synchronized swimming in Sandwich, now called artistic swimming. She muses as we talk about her long life as a competitive swimmer, coach and teacher - spanning nine decades. Claiming to be shy as a 15 year old, she approached the swim coach at the YMCA in New Haven after not being selected for the team. Her tears earned her a spot!
Joan took to the water so quickly that she won the women’s national 200-yard breaststroke at age 15! The tears paid off! However, there were few places for women to pursue their athletic dreams in the 1940s, but luckily she was admitted to one of the only colleges with a women’s swim team, Purdue University.
Joan will receive the David Asher Volunteer Award at the 37th Provincetown Swim for Life & Paddler Flotilla fundraiser at the post-Swim’s Mermaid Tea and awards ceremony on September 7 at 3:30 pm at the Johnson Street beach headquarters, under the big white tent. The event beneficiaries include thirteen non-profit community organizations, raising over $6M since 1988.
Joan married in 1960, had four children, all athletic - Patty, Jim, Lynia and Chris, with Patty competing in six ironman competitions. She settled back home in New Haven, teaching swimming at her childhood Y. And she introduced aqua robotics” to this traditional swim organization.
“I like to push people out of their comfort zone”, she quipped with a laugh.
Moving to Cape Cod after her children left the nest, Joan settled in Sandwich where she was aquatic director for ten years. She then moved onto Eastham where she worked for twenty-three seasons, slipping away winters to San Miguel, Mexico where she continued her teaching of aqua aerobics classes and worked with five year olds at a pre-school.
Sometime in the late 1990s Joan started summer aqua aerobic classes in Great Pond, Wellfleet that have become the nucleus of the Wellfleet Great Pond Mermaids fundraising team at the Swim for Life. Beginning in 2019, when the tail end of Hurricane Dorian canceled the Provincetown event, swimmers inaugurated their first official Swim in the quieter waters of Great Pond. This year’s Wellfleet Swim is September 7 and starts at 9:00 am for the 1-mile swim around the circumference of the pond.
For a list of our business sponsors and information about registration for swimming, volunteering, kayaking, Watch Parties and the Half-Mile Swim, and information about the Celebration of Life Concert, go to swim4life.org
Jay Critchley
Founder & Director, Provincetown Community Compact
The Compact Webpage | The Compact Facebook Page
