The Wairoa Swimming School has achieved a double at the New Zealand AustSwim Awards.
It won the Swim Centre of the Year title and Kelly Doyle won a best teacher award.
The Sport Hawke's Bay managed Wairoa Community Centre is at an all-time high in visit numbers, members, learn to swim participants, pool visits, fitness centre and gymnasium visits.
Wairoa Learn to Swim manager Denice Gasson was thrilled to repeat the AustSwim Swim Centre of the Year award win of 2015 and rapt that Kelly, a volunteer, won best teacher of Aquatic Access and Inclusion. The award recognises excellence, commitment and innovation.
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"The overall centre award is great recognition for a lot of hard work by the team and we are really happy for Kelly, who is such a fantastic teacher," Ms Gasson said.
"Kelly, or 'Miss Kelly' to her students is an amazing instructor, that's why her students have smiles on their faces during the lessons, learn life skills during the lesson and leave wanting to come back."
The centre had 6525 participants this year, up from 4992 the previous year. Additionally, school numbers increased with 9111 total visits taking part in instructed lessons.
"The pool was close to full capacity most of the year, which is an amazing result," said Ms Gasson.
"Most of these swimming instructors volunteer and see it as a way of giving back to their community and keeping the cost of the swimming lessons to a minimum, making it affordable for all the Wairoa community."
The Centre Swim School started nine years ago with the instructors retraining from 2011 with the AustSwim teacher of swimming and water safety course.
The Centre Swim School is managed by Sport Hawke's Bay and has a 25m pool and a new learner pool, which was completed in December 2015.
Sport Hawke's Bay chief executive Mark Aspden said the success of the Wairoa team was down to their commitment to deliver quality lessons that improve the swimming ability and confidence of many in the community.