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The open-water Sound Swim is the highlight of the 20th annual summer fundraiser that includes club and town pool swim-a-thons through July and August for Swim Across America-Long Island Sound. Teams of swimmers will swim either one-mile or 1/2 mile as individuals or form relay teams to raise funds for cancer research. Chad Glennon, whose mother-in-law Sarah Haller is the namesake of “Team Sarah”, has seen his team grow each year. “I’ve been here since the event started, manning the boats and helping out,” Glennon said. “Then my mother-in-law died and we put the team together and I got into the water. It gets better each year.” More than $250,000 has been raised already during pool events sponsored by Chappaqua Swim & Tennis Club, Westchester Country Club, New York Athletic Club in Pelham, Mamaroneck's Orienta Beach Club, Coveleigh Club in Rye and Lakeside Field Club in North Salem with Lake Isle Country Club in Eastchester closing out the events on August 3. The Sound Swim brings together teams of swimmers, families and other groups who honor those who battled cancer. The event, which draws thousands to the Larchmont shore each July, was cancelled last summer due to bad weather. This year's event is expected to be the largest in 20 years. The 2011 Sound Swim raised a record $1,200,000 as 54 memorial teams, each honoring a relative, loved one or friend lost to cancer, made the swim. Proceeds from this year’s swims will benefit the Cancer Support Team (serving lower Westchester), the Tommy Palazzo Fellowship for Columbia University and Morgan Stanley Children’s Hospital at New York-Presbyterian, The Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center’s Swim Across America and DeMatteo Research Laboratories, and United Hospice of Clarkstown.
Those interested in participating in the Swim Across America-LIS events can register to swim, volunteer to help, or sponsor a swimmer on the group's website. Donations can be sent to SAA-Long Island Sound, P.O. Box 217, Larchmont, NY 10538.
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