end I blew that goal out of
the water with a total of $4,
dollars and 301 food items—
almost 165 kilograms of food.
While I was “swimming for
food” that first time, I had a lot of
my friends come and swim with
me each day. This really helped
me because swimming 200 laps
a day is not only challenging,
it is also very repetitive. By the
end of the week, I was pretty
tired, so having the support of
my friends really kept me going
and I looked forward to seeing
them each day.
Will Swim for Food is grow-
ing bigger for 2019. It was so
great to have my teammates
with me that I asked them if
they wanted to help me in the
coming year and be part of a
team. Not surprisingly, they all
jumped on board! So this year
I am excited to say we have a
team of 12 swimmers. Our goal
is to raise $5,000 plus 500 food
items, by swimming 500
kilometres during the week
of the event. Each of us plans
to swim 200 laps a day, for a
weekly total of 420 kilometres,
and we are hoping more people
will swim and contribute laps to
top us up to 500 kilometres.
It is shaping up to be an
exciting year! I was lucky
enough to meet Olympian
Tera Van Beilen who works for
Speedo Canada, and Olympic
medallist Brittany MacLean.
They’re both going to swim and
contribute some laps to our
campaign. My team and I are
really looking forward to our
swim week and helping the
Orangeville Food Bank. n
For more, visit http://www.willswimfor-
food.ca and follow the Orange-
ville Otters on social media!
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