The University swim team held its second annual Swimathon Oct. 24 to raise money for the University’s Children’s Hospital.
The event started as part of a project management class and evolved into an annual event with about 70 participants from the Charlottesville community. It involves many University varsity swimmers.
Founded last year by fourth-year Commerce student Yannick Kaeser and now led by fourth-year Commerce student Haley Durmer, Swimathon invites youth swim clubs — including the Virginia Gators — to a day of swimming, meet and greets and a college panel.
Participants are divided into different age groups and sponsored for the number of laps they swim. The event is open to all competitive swimmers in the Charlottesville community, but fourth-year Commerce student Nicole Calandra, one of the event organizers for this year’s Swimathon, said she hopes the leadership team will market beyond competitive swimmers in the future.
“I think that expanding Swimathon to reach out to more members of the Charlottesville community, to high schools and non-swimmers can really help the event grow,” Calandra said.
Krista Davis, a member of the Charlottesville community, is an active participant in Swimathon. Her children have entered the event for both years it has been in operation.
“Seeing the connection between the kids and the students was just very rewarding,” Davis said. “The students were so enthusiastic.”
This year’s event featured activities beyond being in the water and swimming laps, Calandra said. Included in the new activities was a student panel consisting of a member of the University swim team.
“We set up different stations for the swimmers to go to when they weren’t swimming,” Calandra said. “The swimmers especially enjoyed the college panel where the team talked about recruitment and college swimming.”
While only four swim team members were able to attend last year, the whole team attended this year to participate and engage with the youth swimmers, third-year Engineering student Kaitlyn Jones said.
“It was so rewarding to see the smiles on the kids’ faces and reminded me [of] when I was young and looked up to older swimmers,” the swim team member said.
Kaeser said he hopes to see the event continued in the future.
“With the networks we currently have and consistent participants, I think it could become a University tradition,” he said.
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