We set out to make 2022 a year to make Dreams Come True – and now, it’s time to do one of our favorite things – CELEBRATE! We’re swimming out of 2022 with a lot of gratitude, pride and happiness – all thanks to our fintastic Goldfish family that made the year so fin-omenal! As we dive into the new year, we’re taking a look back on 8 of our most favorite reasons to celebrate in 2022!

Dreams Come True in 2022 

Our Dreams Come True in 2022 campaign kicked off at the very start of the year, launching an initiative to celebrate the dreamers, believers and achievers within our schools. We partnered with Big Life Journal to give our Goldfish swimmers and crew members a vision board to put their dreams on paper while setting goals, visualizing dreams, and staying focused to make those dreams come true! We celebrated some pretty fintastic dreams over several months! At the end of the campaign, we awarded four grand prize winners, two students – James from Goldfish Wexford in Pennsylvania and Veronica from Goldfish Dayton in Ohio – and two team members, Miss Lyz from Goldfish – Anderson, and Miss Becca from Goldfish – Richmond West End (who brought tears to our eyes!) to win big! All four winners received $2,022 to put towards making their dreams come true AND special prizes that aligned with their dreams for the year.

Safer Swimmer Pledge

Water Safety is our #1 priority and spreading the word about it just feels right! We launched year two of the Safer Swimmer Pledge that encouraged members and their parents to take the pledge to be safer – in and around the water. Of course, our friends Ryan Murphy, Cullen Jones, and Speedo joined in to help us make a splash! Through their help and our own promotion of the pledge, we raised over $10,000 in donations to the USA Swimming Foundation,  awarded a Grand Prize Winner (a very special swimmer that took the pledge) with a $5,000 family getaway, AND awarded our school with the most pledges – Goldfish Swim School -Pittsford – a VIP Pool Party with Ryan, to keep the water safety celebration going! 

We Made Waves in the News – Talking All Things Water Safety, Happy Healthy (little!) Humans, and Friendly Competition!!

Throughout 2022, we were lucky enough to see our Goldfish family on TV, in magazines, and winning medals! Our co-founder Jenny and brand ambassador Ryan Murphy were featured on Live with Kelly and Ryan, where they got to talk about water safety and how Goldfish helps teach kiddos to be safer in and around the water. We also got to see brand ambassador Cullen Jones in USA Today, discussing Diversity and Inclusivity in the sport of swimming. O-fish-al pediatrician of Goldfish, Dr. Molly O’Shea, was featured in Parents Magazine where she discussed getting your kids into swim lessons. Ryan Murphy became the very first swimmer ever to take home 3 Gold Medals at the World Championships. All this, plus our local Goldfish teams sharing the important message of Water Safety in their communities. What a busy year our Goldfish friends had!

Not One, Not Two, But FOUR Franchisees of the Year!

In 2022 alone, a whopping FOUR of our franchisees were recognized by the IFA as Franchisees of the Year. Franchisees Scott Payne of Goldfish – Columbia, Peters Township, Silver Spring, Superior and Wexford, Dana Schuchardt of Goldfish – Park Ridge and Gilbert, Amy Strozier of Goldfish – Dayton and Alex Tyler of Goldfish – St. Charles and Glen Ellyn were all recognized as those who have demonstrated excellence within the franchise community, through leadership, giving back and their commitment to their communities. We totally agree – and are totally proud!

Celebrating Our People in Person!

After a few years of celebrating from a distance, we got together with our schools in 2022 for the School Leadership Summit and Owners Celebration, where we celebrated Core Values, and awarded our Rookie of the Year – Goldfish Swim School – Eagan in Minnesota, and School of the Year – Goldfish Swim School – Gaithersburg in Maryland! We loved being back in person, celebrating our mission and sharing best practices to help our teams continue to provide Wow! Customer Services, make waves in their communities, and see Extraordinary Results! We had a splash of a time getting together with friendly, familiar faces and doing what we do best – celebrating!

Partnerships Worth Celebrating

2022 was a year of partnerships! We got to partner with amazing brands on initiatives that made waves. We partnered with Netflix to celebrate the Sea Beast premiere. We partnered with Poolwerx and The Parentologist to promote Water Safety. We partnered with Alijah’s Awareness to promote autism acceptance. We partnered with Speedo to promote the Safer Swimmer Pledge. We even got the opportunity to partner with The Ellen Show to promote winter water safety! Together, we made waves of change, and were able to work with those that shared our commitment to our core values, especially Integrity, Compassion and Trust!

Every Child A Swimmer

Florida law nailed a total win after taking aim at preventing child drowning deaths. The new Florida law, Every Child A Swimmer, launched at the start of the 2022-2023 school year, requires all Florida public schools to ask parents if their child has taken swim lessons. We greatly applaud their efforts and hope to work together in the future to bring the legislation to as many states as possible!

One Million Swim Lessons at Goldfish Swim School

Growing is kind of our thing these days… In 2022, we o-fish-ally hit our one millionth swim lesson in our shiver-free pools! Over the summer, we were teaching 200,000 swimmers a week – a new record! We opened 16 new schools this year, for a total of 140 open schools in 140 different communities across North America! As we continue to grow in our number of schools and swimmers, we’re working hard to help all kiddos get access to life-saving swim lessons – creating one safer swimmer at a time!

Our members and teams continue to finspire us, with stories of Growing Up Goldfish, being superstars in the community, making progress every day and seeing extraordinary results. From all of us at Goldfish Swim School, we extend a big thank you to our Goldfish family – our members, our teams and our communities – for helping US make our Dreams Come True in 2022! We can’t wait for you to join us in 2023 as we continue to focus on helping raise Healthy, Happy Humans – and celebrating Their Golden Years!