Volunteers swim to raise money for research

MOSES LAKE - Swimmers took to Moses Lake to raise money to fight cancer in the first local Swim Across America fundraiser Saturday.

Swim Across America is a national effort which started on East Coast in the 1980s. About 35 swimmers hit the water in Moses Lake, backed by about 60 volunteers, coordinator Melea Johnson said. Swimmers had their choice of half-mile, mile and 2.5 mile courses, starting from the beach at Blue Heron Park.

The local swim is affiliated with the event in Seattle, and organizers set the goal of raising $1 million statewide, Johnson said; the Moses Lake event generated about $30,000 toward that goal, she said. The Seattle swim is Sept. 7.

"Our community has such positive energy of caring people," Johnson said. Volunteers came from throughout Grant County, providing in-water supervision, emergency services, breakfast for the crowd and a little music to swim by.

Manta Rays coach Jerry Johnston estimated he convinced about 15 kids from the team to be at the lake at 8 a.m. for a swim. "We got as many swimmers as we could," he said.

"We've all known people who died of cancer," Johnston said. In his case that includes a kid who swam on the Manta Rays, who died when he was 8. "It affects every age and every kind of person," he said.

Derek Sharrard, of Grants Pass, Ore., has been at the Moses Lake Job Corps center about a month, and volunteered for the center's team when he heard about the fundraiser. "My dad is a cancer survivor," he said, and he lost a friend to cancer.

Not that open-water swimming was that easy, even a half-mile. "Three weeks of training and I still wasn't prepared," Sharrard said.

"I freaked out when the weeds were there. I don't like weeds. They scare me," said Janice Pryor, one of the Manta Rays. But Janice has participated in triathlons, so the mile distance wasn't a big challenge. "It was pretty easy."

This was the first mile swim for Manta Ray Shyanne Speed. It was easier than she anticipated, "by far. I could've swam more," she said. The challenge came with the open water, which was different than swimming in the pool. "Definitely," Speed said.

"I had to look up like every 20 seconds to see where I was going," she said. Aside from the loss of perspective and the weeds there was the wind - what felt like a light breeze on land kicked up some waves on the water. "You're always fighting the wind, too," Sharrard said.

Christine Quantz is an experienced swimmer, but it was her first open water swim. "I think the adventure of open water is a little different," she said. She was breathing hard a lot sooner than she would swimming similar, or even longer, distances in the pool, she said.

Tony St. Onge's parents both died of cancer, and besides, "all the swimmers weren't going to let me off the hook." St. Onge is coach of the Moses Lake High School swim team.

He chose the mile course, made more challenging by the fact he's a paraplegic. "Well, it took me a while, but I finished," he said.