Best of SAA + SwimOutlet Contest – 2019

Posted on June 3, 2019October 2, 2019 Posted in #DefeatCancer, chicago, Events, Family Tree, Long Island Sound, News, SAA on the Scene, san francisco, UncategorizedTagged #SAASwimOutlet, making waves to fight cancer, swim across america, Swim OutletLeave a comment

Again this year, we’re offering an exciting opportunity to show your love for SAA and win a $100 SwimOutlet.com gift card. Enter by tagging @saaswim and @swimoutlet in your SAA – spirited photos from event day and we’ll pick the best one from each open water swim. Grab your friends and family and show us the best the SAA community has to offer like these winners!

SAA – Houston

Winner: Natalie Marshall

SAA – Tampa

Winner: Tori Kirkman

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SAA – Fairfield County

Winner: Karen O’Brien (& Family)

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SAA – Boston

Winner: Stacey Mehringer

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SAA – Detroit

Winner: Katrina Jozwiak

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SAA – Long Island Sound

Winner: Lindsay Hall

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SAA – Sound to Cove

Winner: Brianna Fordham

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SAA – Charleston-Kiawah

Winner: Emma Ledingham

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SAA – Chicago

Winner: Andrew Xue

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SAA – Nantucket

Winner: Caitlin Marcoux

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SAA – St. Louis

Winner: Dustin Barrett

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SAA – Denver

Winner: Kyle Robrock

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SAA – Seattle

Winner: Cammy Webster

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SAA – Dallas

Winner: Amanda Hopkins

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SAA – Baltimore

Winner: Sammy Rocks

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SAA – Charlotte

Winner: Sara Dunn

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SAA – Atlanta

Winner: Katie Herman

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SAA – San Francisco

Winner: Eric Miller

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The SAA – SwimOutlet Contest is Back in 2019!

Posted on April 23, 2019 Posted in #DefeatCancer, chicago, Events, Family Tree, Long Island Sound, News, SAA on the Scene, san francisco, UncategorizedTagged #SAASwimOutlet, making waves to fight cancer, swim across america, Swim OutletLeave a comment

Back again this year, we have partnered with SwimOutlet for a social media photo contest for all of our open water swims! All summer, we’re offering an exciting opportunity to show your love for SAA and win a $100 SwimOutlet.com gift card. Enter by tagging @saaswim and @swimoutlet in your photo from your swim and we’ll pick the best one. Grab your friends and family and show us the best the SAA community has to offer!

swimoutlet

SAA On the Scene – November 2018

Posted on November 28, 2018November 28, 2018 Posted in olympians, Pool Swims, SAA on the Scene, san francisco, UncategorizedTagged golden goggles, maya dirado, open water swimming, SAA on the Scene, swim across america, wowsaLeave a comment

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!

Swim Across America Impact: The 2018 Nobel Prize in Medicine

Posted on October 18, 2018 Posted in #DefeatCancer, Fundraising, Grant, Labs, Long Island Sound, News, san francisco, UncategorizedTagged cancer research, immunotherapy, nobel prize, swim across america, swim charityLeave a comment

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The 2018 Nobel Prize in Medicine has been awarded to Dr. Jim Allison and Dr. Tasuku Honjo for their work in immunotherapy. Swim Across America grants have played a role in the development of their research.

Dr. Jim Allison has been awarded the Nobel Prize in Medicine for his breakthrough research that our immune system can fight cancer. The Swim Across America research lab at Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center collaborated with Dr. Allison to focus its research and clinical trials to understand how immunotherapy treatments could be developed for patients. The research and our grant funding at Memorial Sloan is more important than ever to understand why some patients respond to immunotherapy and others

Dr. Tasuku Honjo was awarded the 2018 Nobel Prize in Medicine. His discovery helped pioneer a new type of cancer treatment called immunotherapy. With Dr. Honjo’s discovery, SAA beneficiary Sidney Kimmel Comprehensive Cancer Center at Johns Hopkins was able to conduct a clinical trial funded by Swim Across America that helped lead to the FDA approval of Keytruda. Families are being given hope because of pioneering research and non-profits like Swim Across America that provide grant funding.

You can read more about the 2018 prize here.

Best of #SAASwimOutlet – 2018

Posted on July 24, 2018October 16, 2018 Posted in #DefeatCancer, chicago, Events, Family Tree, Long Island Sound, News, SAA on the Scene, san francisco, UncategorizedTagged #SAASwimOutlet, making waves to fight cancer, swim across america, Swim OutletLeave a comment

All summer, we’re offering an exciting opportunity to show your love for SAA and win a $100 SwimOutlet.com gift card. Enter by tagging @saaswim and @swimoutlet in your photo from your swim and add the hashtag #SAASwimOutlet to the caption and we’ll pick the best one. Grab your friends and family and show us the best the SAA community has to offer like these winners!

SAA – Tampa

SAA – Greenwich-Stamford

SAA – Boston

SAA – Chicago

SAA – Long Island Sound

SAA – Charleston-Kiawah

SAA – Nantucket

SAA – St. Louis

SAA – Denver

SAA – Rhode Island

SAA – Seattle

SAA – Charlotte

SAA – Baltimore

SAA – San Francisco

SAA – Dallas

SAA – Atlanta

SAA – Richmond

Swim Across America Awards an Additional $100,000 to Fight Cancer

Posted on March 22, 2018March 23, 2018 Posted in #DefeatCancer, Fundraising, Grant, Long Island Sound, san francisco, UncategorizedLeave a comment

Swim Across America, a 501(c)3 that hosts charity swims with a purpose of granting the proceeds to fund cancer research, is pleased to announce it is awarding a $50,000 grant to Dr. Robyn Gartrell of Columbia University Medical Center and a $50,000 grant to Dr. Julie Saba of UC Children’s Hospital Oakland. The awarding of these two grants is a result of additional fundraising that was received in 2017 and is in addition to the $4,891,422 that SAA awarded for 2018 to its beneficiaries.

Since it’s founding in 1987, SAA charity swims have funded more than $75 million to cancer research. SAA grant researchers have developed multiple FDA approved immunotherapies, gene therapy and personalized therapy treatments. Over 1.6 million Americans are diagnosed with cancer every year. Because of SAA grants, oncologists have been able to conduct research that otherwise wouldn’t have been funded and more families have hope in the fight against cancer.

Robyn Gartrell Image2 — **Dr. Robyn Gartrell at SAA–Long Island**

Dr. Gartrell will use her grant to study childhood brain tumors, including high-grade glioma (HGG), the most aggressive type of brain cancer in children. New treatment methods using the immune system, called immunotherapies, offer promise for helping to treat HGG in children. Dr. Gartrell’s team will study specific immune cells in and around HGG to determine the best approach in applying immunotherapy to this devastating disease.

Julie Saba and Rob Goldsby lab coats — **Dr. Julie Saba at SAA–San Francisco**

Dr. Saba will use her grant to study a cancer-related gene (AF1q) first identified in an infant with leukemia. Some types of cancers have high AF1q levels, and patient outcomes are worse in AF1q-positive tumors and leukemia. Scientists have concluded that AF1q is a “genetic driver” of cancer. The proposed project and SAA grant funding will compare the protein profiles on the surface of cancer cells either containing or lacking AF1q. By doing so, Dr. Saba expects to identify proteins that act as surrogate markers of AF1q expression that could be targeted by immune therapy. It is hoped that this study will move closer to developing a cure for cancers in which AF1q is a genetic driver.