SAA Family Tree is a monthly focus on stories that display the impact all the members of the Swim Across America family have both locally and nationally. If you have a story or link you’d like to share, please send here.
SAA Family Tree is a monthly focus on stories that display the impact all the members of the Swim Across America family have both locally and nationally. If you have a story or link you’d like to share, please send here.
Swim Across America celebrated the end of the year across the country by presenting checks to our esteemed beneficiaries. Here is a collection of smiling faces as the hard fundraising work is now seeing its impact multiplied in the fight against cancer.
As the 2018 Open Water season comes to an end, SAA National members have been at some great events around the country spreading the SAA mission. Check them out and contact us if you have an event you’d like to have featured!
Golden Goggles Award Ceremony (New York, NY – November 19, 2018)
Swim Across America’s own and Olympian Craig Beardsley represented SAA at the 2018 Golden Goggles Awards in New York. Craig along with 4-time Olympic Medalist Maya Dirado, presented the Coach of the Year Award!
World Open Water Swimming Association Conference (San Francisco, CA – November 10, 2018)
SAA’s Director of Events Megan Melgaard and San Francisco Bay Swim Co-Event Director Susan Helmrich presented “Swimming for Good” and “Why I Swim” on behalf of Swim Across America at the WOWSA Conference held at the Olympic Club in San Francisco.
Santa Barbara Pool Swim (Santa Barbara, CA – November 4, 2018)
The inaugural “SB Swims for a Cure” pool swim was held at the Los Banos del Mar Pool in Santa Barbara, California. The event doubled their fundraising goal in just it’s first year, raising over $11,400! SAA’s own Megan Melgaard and Craig Beardsley were able to attend the event and give some pointers to the swimmers! If you’re interesting in starting a pool swim contact Craig Beardsley!
Olympians Craig Beardsley, Rowdy Gaines and Steve Lundquist
The 8th annual Value Based Cancer Care Summit brought together more than 300 thought leaders in academic, government, pharmaceutical and biotech. Change and innovation are happening at a fast pace in the field of healthcare and especially oncology. The purpose of the two-day summit was to create an active dialogue among the stakeholders in oncology care that ultimately will improve the quality of patient care.
Swim Across America, which has granted over $80 million dollars into cancer research, clinical trials and prevention, was selected as the beneficiary for the summit. Several of the oncologists shared during panel discussions the importance of Swim Across America’s early stage grant funding and how SAA’s funding has helped lead to breakthroughs and FDA approvals of new immunotherapy treatments.
In a personal testimonial, Dr. Jedd Wolchok of Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center eloquently shared that SAA grant funding has helped numerous young investigators move forward their research ideas, many of whom are immigrants and are the pioneers in immunotherapy and personalized medicine.
Olympian and SAA ambassador Rowdy Gaines attended the summit giving a keynote talk about the 1980 Olympic boycott and how he persevered against the odds to win three gold medals at the 1984 Los Angeles Olympic games. Rowdy also shared how cancer has touched his life, losing his stepfather and sister to the disease.
The evening reception was attended by the Swim Across America Board of Directors, Olympians Steve Lundquist and Craig Beardsley, and the leaders from our SAA-Long Island Sound and SAA-Fairfield County charity swims. The reception was dedicated to Swim Across America as we shared stories from survivors, volunteers, and participants.
It was an honor for Swim Across America contributions to be recognized and it was meaningful to be part of these important discussions as we strengthened our relationships and lifted our goodwill.
SAA Family Tree is a monthly focus on stories that display the impact all the members of the Swim Across America family have both locally and nationally. If you have a story or link you’d like to share, please send here.
SAA – Charleston-Kiawah
Event Director Brad Johnson promoted our 2nd annual swim on Kiawah Island Golf Resort.
We appreciate the support of all the Olympians who have donated their time to support the SAA cause in 2018. These Olympians have attended our swims and special events generating awareness and raising donations for our beneficiaries. Thanks for all you do for SAA!
SWIM ACROSS AMERICA – TAMPA
Charlie Houchin, Eric Wunderlich, Steve Lindquist
SWIM ACROSS AMERICA – GREENWICH-STAMFORD
Charlie Houchin, Cristina Teuscher and Craig Beardsley at SAA – Greenwich-Stamford
SWIM ACROSS AMERICA – BOSTON
Doug Gjertsen, Erik Vendt, Eric Wunderlich, Alex Meyer, Craig Beardsley and Janel Jorgensen McArdle
SWIM ACROSS AMERICA – CHARLESTON-KIAWAH
Kristy Kowal
Kristy Kowal
SWIM ACROSS AMERICA – CHICAGO
Charlie Houchin and Sebastian Rousseau
SAA – LONG ISLAND SOUND (POOL SWIM)
Cristina Teuscher and Long Island Sound swimmers
SAA – SOUND TO COVE
Olympians Craig Beardsley and Steve Lundquist with the SAA – Nassau Suffolk team
SWIM ACROSS AMERICA – ST. LOUIS
Ryan Berube, Ryan Held and Mark Gangloff
SWIM ACROSS AMERICA – DENVER
Missy Franklin, Elizabeth Beisel, George DiCarlo, Susan Bartholomew-Williams, Susan von der Lippe, Lindsay Benko Mintenko, Mike Mintenko, Andrew Gemmell, Heather Petri, Kara Lynn Joyce, Brickelle Bro, Mara Abbott, Ashley Whitney, Katie Huff and Doug Gjertsen
SWIM ACROSS AMERICA – RHODE ISLAND
Elizabeth Beisel, Craig Beardsley, Janel Jorgensen McArdle and Clara Walker
SWIM ACROSS AMERICA – SEATTLE
Mary Wayte Bradburne with some Kids Splash swimmers
SWIM ACROSS AMERICA – SAN FRANCISCO
Heather Petri, Dana Kirk, Ericka Lorenz, Susan Heon-Preston, Cathy Carr West, Staciana Stitts Winfield, Mike Bruner, Jessica Steffens, Annika Dries, Mark Henderson, Rada Owen, Mike Kiedel, Brikelle Bro, and Christine Magnuson
SWIM ACROSS AMERICA – CHARLOTTE
Charlie Houchin, Lauren Perdue, Hannah Aspden, Marko Blazevski, Tharon Drake and Karlee Bispo
SWIM ACROSS AMERICA – ATLANTA
Missy Franklin, Geoff Gaberino, Doug Gjertsen, Bobby Hackett, McClain Hermes, Katie Hoff, Kara Lynn Joyce, Kristy Kowal, Steve Lundquist, Maritza Correia McClendon, Megan Neyer, Amanda Weir, Ashley Whitney, Peter Wright, Nei-Kuan Chia, Ramon Valle, Hali Flickinger and Shannon Vreeland.
SWIM ACROSS AMERICA – DALLAS
Dana Vollmer, Ryan Berube, Charlie Houchin and Jim Montgomery
SWIM ACROSS AMERICA – SMAC OUT CANCER POOL SWIM
Susan Heon-Preston, Craig Beardsley and Mike Bruner
SAA Family Tree is a monthly focus on stories that display the impact all the members of the Swim Across America family have both locally and nationally. If you have a story or link you’d like to share, please send here.
Swim Across America celebrated the end of the year across the country by presenting checks to our esteemed beneficiaries. Here is a collection of smiling faces as the hard fundraising work is now seeing its impact multiplied in the fight against cancer.
Swim Across America is excited to announce its 2018 open water schedule. After a record-setting 2017 that saw $4.8 million granted to cancer research, SAA will be expanding to 18 full-scale open water charity swims. Denver and Richmond join the fold as new swims and Charleston-Kiawah will expand from its original clinic/short-distance concept. Check out the schedule below, register and help SAA #makewaves to fight cancer in 2018! Direct link is here.
d numerous young investigators move forward their research ideas, many of whom are immigrants and are the pioneers in immunotherapy and personalized medicine.
Swim Across America 