U.S. Masters Swimming Dorothy Donnelly Service Award

Recipient:	Doug Hayden
Year:	2025
LMSC:	Missouri Valley

For over 11 years, Doug Hayden served as Chair of the Missouri Valley (MOVY) LMSC. He attended USMS National Conventions and Relay Workshops, with unwavering commitment, passionate leadership, and tireless energy. Doug became the face of MOVY Masters Swimming. At the club level, Doug coached the workout group at his home pool in Gladstone, North Kansas City for many years, mentoring hundreds of swimmers, and recruiting new swimmers, which helped MOVY membership to grow to over 300 registered swimmers. Doug was the Meet Director for MOVY’s annual fall meet for a long time, and he even introduced a special ‘Swimmo de Mayo’ meet on May 5, 2024. Doug was also the spirited leader and innovator of his team’s annual “April Fools Day 100 x 100s” tradition every April 1st. Doug never set out to lead MOVY’s Board for 11 years. At each December board meeting, he brought up succession planning, hoping someone would step forward. But the room was always silent—the consensus being that ‘no one could do the job as well as Doug’. And it was true! Sadly, after a long battle with abdominal cancer, on August 20, Doug passed away, and he was able to literally stay in the pool till his dying day.