11 Swimmers Complete Long Island Sound 10K for Swim Across America
Eleven open water swimmers last Saturday completed a 10-kilometer swim across Long Island Sound to raise more than $2 million for Swim Across America’s fight against cancer.
The group of four women and seven men swam 6.21 miles from Morgan Park in Glen Cove, Long Island to Larchmont Shore Club. The 33rd annual Long Island Sound open water day hosted by Swim Across America included more than 600 other swimmers contesting 2K and 5K swims in the sound and half-mile pool swims.
The record-breaking participation saw 615 swimmers in total, 250 volunteers on land and in the water and more than 2,000 spectators. The group raised $2,095,500.25, which will be split across Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center, Columbia University Cancer Center, Weill Cornell Medicine and the Cancer Support Team to fund cancer research, clinical trials and patient care.
This year’s fundraising brings the tally over 33 editions of the event to more than $31 million, the most prolific of Swim Across America’s nationwide network of events that have cumulatively raised more than $100 million for cancer research.
“This year’s swim was nothing short of extraordinary,” said Jean Fufidio, the event director of the Long Island Sound 10K event. “We had a perfect day for swimming and more swimmers than ever before, crossing the $2 million milestone in a single swim for the first time in our 33-year history! Our 10K swimmers were a shining example of dedication, grit and purpose — taking on the toughest course to support a cause that impacts us all.”
The 11 swimmers all raised a minimum of $5,000, led by the $39,466 raised by Joseph Kauffman.
The swimmers were:
- Adam Coe, 45, of Team Next Level Private
- Ryan Feeley, 33, of Team Payne (in honor of Brian Payne)
- Josh Glantz, 57, a co-captain of Team John who has swum in all 33 editions of the benefit, the last 15 with kayaker Jeff Malsch, whose wife Valerie is a multiple myeloma survivor
- Lindsay Hall, 35, of Team Chelsea Piers Masters
- Lucy Kappel, 46, of Team Masters
- Joseph Kaufman, 57, the other co-captain of Team John
- Aaron Kwittken, 54, who is a two-time skin cancer survivor and volunteer firefighter on with Team Mackey
- Kevin McCarthy, 48, of Team Masters
- KC Middelmann, 30
- David Reavy, 58, of Team Masters
- Krysten Sciacca, 37
“What keeps us going across Long Island Sound is knowing that our journey isn’t nearly as tough as the journey someone takes when fighting cancer,” said Glantz, who also co-founded Swim Across America’s Westchester swim. “Our swim is easy compared to what cancer patients have to go through; we are happy to make waves to fight cancer and fund critical cancer research so that more patients have the opportunity to live longer, healthier lives.”
