Women Swimmin': The Main Event

Saturday morning, around 7:55am I was in my green coleman canoe at the east short of Cayuga Lake. My friend Christa was paddling and steering at the back of the canoe while I paddled and snapped pictures from the front. We were volunteering as boaters for the 3rd annual Women Swimmin' (not a race) event. The event is a fundraiser for Hospicare (located about 5 miles from my house up on East King Road) and this year the event had 232 women swimmers and raised over $130,000.

The Ithaca Journal has a complete article with interviews here: http://www.ithacajournal.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20060814/NEWS01/608140325/1002

I've posted pictures to my server here:

http://www.544productions.com/2006/WomenSwimmin2/

and pictures from Friday night's orientation here:

http://www.544productions.com/2006/WomenSwimmin1/

Christa and I were assigned to Pod 20 and soon after the swim began we pulled up along side a swimmer who was doing her first swim. We paddled along side of her (hopefully not too close and not too far) and stayed with her all the way to the west shore and the Ithaca Yacht Club. Most of the pictures of the swim feature her in the foreground making her way across the lake. Her swim was inspiring. She didn't stop the entire 1.2 mile trek. She survived the waves and enjoyed the warm water and cool air. Christa and I did our best to keep her going straight to the shore without doing too much extra swimming.

When we reached the shore we packed up the canoe and headed to congratulate our other friends who swam and boated. I ran into Julie (who swam at 7 months pregnant!) and her office mate in the Cornell Ag. School A. (who also swam) and A's friend S. (who I know from blogging), as well as a few other ag. school people (B.,JiJy, Allison and little Oliver). I saw Corinne (who makes hats and headcoverings) and Leslie and Jonathan and Lucy. I looked around a bit to see if I could find the swimmer we paddled with (we didn't even know her name) and then she appeared. Her name is Georgia (a name I instantly liked) and she told me this was her first year and she was doing the swim for her cousin who stayed at Hospicare when he had a terminal illness. She was doing this to thank Hospicare and to pay them back for all they did for someone that really needed their help. We parted and I started to search for Christa. After checking around the club and giving up I bumped into my neighbor Kim and her contingent of fans. We talked a bit and Christa appeared and we decided to head back to town.

It was a wonderful event and a great morning for being on the water helping out people who were doing so much to help such a great cause.

Comments

[Mysterious Lady]

What a perfect post!

[Dave]

Thanks Beth!

[OldOldOldLady Of The Hills]

Wonderful post and Congratulations on your Perfect Post For August. What a wonderful thing to do, btw....And it sounds like they raised a really wonderful amount of money!

[Melli]

WOW! What an awesome event! And a very entertaining post about it! I think Mysterious Lady made an excellent choice for the Perfect Post! Congrats!

[MommaK]

Wow. What a great cause!! Congrats on your award :)

[Irish Church Lady]

Congrats! Great stuff!