Sisters to swim Long Island Sound in cancer research fundraiser

      Alexis and Daphne Skelos will be joining a group of athletes in this year's fundraiser, which will again benefit the Miracle Building at Mercy Hospital and the Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center's Swim Across America Research Laboratory. Last year, the sisters who are members of the South Side High School girls varsity swim team and the Long Island Aquatic Club, each swam over three miles at the Nassau Aquatic Center. They raised over $2,000 for the Miracle Building. This year they will be plunging into the deep waters of Long Island Sound off of Morgan Park in Glen Cove in an effort to make the world-renowned cancer care and treatment of Memorial Sloan Kettering Hospital accessible to more people on Long Island.
      Village resident, Don Regan, who is a member of the Executive Committee of the Nassau Suffolk Chapter of Swim Across America, said, I am delighted to have Alexis and Daphne as members of our team of talented athletes who want to share their love of swimming with a desire to make a meaningful impact in their own community. They not only swim for cancer, but they also participate in the organizational meetings, recruit other young athletes to participate and solicit contributions from friends, neighbors and relatives.
      Last year the girls helped recruit other members of the Long Island Aquatic Club to participate in the swim at their training pool, the Nassau Aquatic Center. The team raised over $8,000 and 97.5 cents of every dollar raised went directly to benefit the Miracle Building and the Laboratory.
      Alexis, who will be a freshman at the College of William and Mary said, We are thankful for our health, but know that others are less fortunate. Many people, including children and teenagers, in our community who are stricken with cancer have to travel to New York for treatment. The Miracle Building at Mercy Hospital will give more people a chance to receive the best treatment available right here in Rockville Centre.
      The Nassau Suffolk Committee of Swim Across America was founded in 2001 by Garden City resident Gerry Oakes, who made his first swim across Long Island Sound in 2000. That event was for the benefit of the Swim Across America Research Laboratory at Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center. He seized upon the excitement and success of that challenge to found the Nassau Suffolk Committee, which presently has the Miracle Building as its principle beneficiary. Many of the members of the committee, including Don Regan, Karen Tellecamp, the Skelos girls are residents of Rockville Centre.       Oakes said, Right now we want to see the completion of the Miracle Building. In the future, we will channel our efforts to other cancer priorities here on Long Island.
      A cornerstone of the local committee is the involvement of young people. Oakes believes, it is important for teenagers and young adults to be exposed to community service programs. These kids have not only a lot to learn from these experiences, but they also have a tremendous amount of energy and ideas on how to make our program more successful.
      Last year Oakes brought in two former Olympic swimmers to speak with the kids on the need to get involved in charitable activities. Oakes said, This year, Jenny Thompson, America's most decorated female Olympic athlete, came to meet with the committee and to speak with the young swimmers.
      After many years of being at the top of her sport, Thompson is a medical student at Columbia, and continues to train competitively and, according to Oakes, She is the perfect role model.
      Swimming in Long Island Sound will not be easy, according to Daphne, a freshman at South Side High School, but I know I am going to feel good because, I am doing something to help people who have a real race to win.
      You can sponsor Alexis and Daphne Skelos in their Swim to Fight Cancer by sending your contributions payable to Swim Across America, N/S Committee at P.O. Box 7878 Garden City, New York 11530 or by visiting the website at http://www.swimacrossamerica.org and clicking on the Nassau-Suffolk Committee's event.