Thursday, June 16, 2011

Swim Across America

Aidan recently had the opportunity to participate in a charity fundraiser by swimming.

There is a national organization that raises money for the fight against cancer, and it is called Swim Across America.  They hold open water swims in many locations and this was their first time in the Dallas area.

Aidan has always wanted to try open water swimming, and this was the perfect opportunity.  Not only would he get to do it with a bunch of his swimming friends, in a highly organized and safe environment, but he would be required to raise money in order to participate.  This would be Aidan's first time raising money for an organization he wasn't directly a member of.

As part of the kick-off ceremony, they let any of the participants come up on stage and talk about "why I swim."  While this could have been sappy or gut-wrenching, it was largely inspirational, hopeful and informative.  I really hope that Aidan paid enough attention to understand what his fundraising efforts did.


When you arrived, the swimmers were directed to a table where there were rocks and pens.  You could write why you were swimming on the rock.  Aidan swam for my dad, who survived a nasty form of non-Hodgkins lymphoma.

Before the race began, they gathered all the swimmers on the docks and they all threw their rocks into the water.

Then, it was into the water!  Aidan is somewhere in this photo below, I think he's towards the front, on top.


A mile swim took Aidan about 20 or 30 minutes, I don't really know exactly.  He said it was hard to see anything, and he got kicked a couple of times until he was able to distance himself from other swimmers.


He exited the water 5th, right behind two team-mates, a collegiate swimmer and a former Olympian.  He was proud of his effort.


Happy swimmers after a great swim.  It was a lovely venue, a well-run event, and for a good cause.  Hopefully we'll be there again next year!

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

He should be very proud of his effort and results! Great pic of him walking along the pier. You have one amazing boy!
Michelle Dibb

Judy Pearson Kobsar said...

Your aunt Judy thinks you rock dude!