Community leaders are everywhere!

Imagine the context – it’s 9am on a weekday morning.  There is a deep water aquafit class with a couple of dozen seniors doing their own thing until the class begins.  But there is no instructor.  She’s sick and the recreation centre couldn’t find a substitute in time.  The average age of the group is probably 70.  I am the newbie and probably the youngest (and not a senior by the way).  Quite unexpectedly, one of the 70 year olds gets out of the pool and begins to lead the class.  She’s probably been attending for 5 years or more.  And she’s fantastic!!

We had a great session.  We got our heart rates up, we felt the burn.  We laughed and we barked while doing a doggie paddle.  As a leader, Carolyn was positively inspiring. So why her?

She obviously knew what she was doing, more by experience than by training.  She engaged everyone by demonstrating the moves in very creative ways, and by interacting on both an individual and group level.  She got us to do our best but she didn’t force anyone who didn’t want to be part of the group.  We also did exercises we’d never done before … like dog paddling and barking across the pool.  We also moo’d and chirped!!

Where is your opportunity to be a community leader?