Charity swim raises more than $300,000 for Vineyard cancer center

As the sun rose on Meneshama beach on Saturday, hundreds of Islanders and visitors made their way into the cold Island water, riding the tide against cancer at the inaugural Martha’s Vineyard Swim Across America open-water swim. 

The event, led by two 17-year-old Martha’s Vineyard Regional High School (MVRHS) students, Leah Thomson and Zoe Treitman, raised $334,043 for the Mass General Brigham Cancer Institute at Martha’s Vineyard Hospital, surpassing the original fundraising goal by more than $100,000. 

Nationally, Swim Across America is a nonprofit organization that raises funds for cancer research and clinical trials through open-water and pool swims in more than 27 locations across the country. Since its inauguration in 1987, each local branch of the initiative, now including Martha’s Vineyard, annually organizes swimmers and volunteers to fundraise for cancer research, prevention, and treatment programs. 

Saturday kicked off early, with swimmer check-ins starting at 7 am, followed by the opening ceremony and safety talk, led by Treitman and Thomson. Children 8 and under were the first ones to make waves in the kids’ splash, followed by swimmers who swam distances of either ¼ mile, ½ mile, or one mile in support of cancer research. 

In April, Thomson said in an interview with the MVRHS newspaper High School View, which is published weekly in The Times, that they decided to spearhead the event on the Vineyard after hearing about Nantucket’s swim; they said they were inspired by some friendly competition.

“There’s an open-water swim in Nantucket, and it’s been going on for [more than] 10 years, and they broke their $1 million mark last year,” Thomson said. “So we were reading that in the news, and thought it would be great to have one on the Island, because there’s just so much fundraising potential here.” 

Trietman said in April that they hoped to raise $200,000, but that threshold was surpassed by $132,043 on Saturday.

“We were blown away by how much people fundraised,” Treitman said in an interview with The Times after the event. “As the swim got closer, people got even more involved, and we even had swimmers sign up at the swim. It’s really insane how much money we got raised, and I’m really excited and happy.” 

The funds go directly to the local cancer center, which hopes to bring more access to care on the Island for Vineyarders and their families, eliminating the need to travel off-Island for parts of treatment, and making the experience as easy as possible for those battling cancer. 

The event also attracted celebrities and notable Island residents, such as Seth Meyers. Members of the Kennedy family also joined the swim this past weekend.

Both event organizers said in April that their experiences with loved ones who had cancer were sparks for their drive to initiate the program on Martha’s Vineyard. “My grandmother passed away when I was in elementary school from breast cancer, and I saw how that affected my mom,” Thompson said. “Something that people have been saying to us is that instead of being scared about [cancer], we’re doing something about it.” 

Thomson and Treitman hope to continue fundraising with the new Martha’s Vineyard branch of Swim Across America in the coming years. “We’re definitely going to do it again next year, and hopefully for many years to come,” Treitman said to The Times. “We’re going to have it be an annual event, and keep giving money to the cancer center at the hospital.” 

Thomson said the experience from this year’s swim will make the process next time even smoother: “Next year, here we come! I think it’ll be a lot easier now that we have it all down.”