Swimming to sink cancer
Former SMU stars take to the water to raise money, awareness
Posted on 05/28/2011 by PonyFans.com
People get involved in philanthropic events for different reasons. Sometimes it’s simply a good cause, sometimes involves an issue that affects a friend or family member, and in some cases, it can be simple as the desire for a good tax write-off. The inspiration for philanthropic involvement is hardly important; all that matters is that the effort is made in any of an endless number of worthwhile pursuits.
Former SMU swimmer Leif Wennerstrom didn’t need to be convinced about the value of getting involved in Swim Across America, an organization “dedicated to raising money and awareness for cancer research, prevention and treatment through swimming-related events. With the help of hundreds of volunteers nationwide and past and current Olympians, SAA is helping find a cure for cancer through athleticism, community outreach and direct service.”
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An 11-year cancer survivor, former SMU swimmer Leif Wennerstrom recently had his head shaved as part of an event his employer held to raise money and awareness for cancer research (photo by Webmaster). |
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Wennerstrom was an elite freestyler and backstroker for the Ponies from 1990-93 who missed the 1992 Olympic team in the 100-meter freestyle by one-tenth of a second … and has been cancer free for 11 years, having survived non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma, in the form of a fist-sized tumor between his lung and heart. His older brother, Eric, is a three-time cancer survivor; Eric had Hodgkin’s before his brother was afflicted, and has survived two other battles with the disease since Leif chose a regimen of chemotherapy and radiation over an initial recommendation to have part of the tumor removed surgically in order to determine if it could be removed entirely.
Wennerstrom and six other former SMU swimmers — Olympian Ryan Berube, Mike Smit, Kip Weatherwax, Victoria Bahr, Tom Buck and Bart Fasino — will make up Team Mustang in an open water swim put on by Swim Across America event at 9 a.m., June 11 at Lake Ray Hubbard in Rockwall. Participants can swim a half a mile, a full mile or two miles. Proceeds from the June 11 event will benefit the Innovative Clinical Trials Center at the Baylor Charles A. Sammons Cancer Center, the largest outpatient cancer center in North Texas dedicated to cancer care, research and education. The Sammons Cancer Center is a 467,000-square-foot facility that also offers more than 15 disease-specific support and educational groups and programs, making it one of the most comprehensive programs in the country.
“It’s a little cliché, maybe, but this is my way of giving back,” Wennerstrom said. “My insurance company wrote a check for about $100,000 to Baylor Cancer Center and I lived. Swimming across a lake to raise money and awareness about the disease and what they do at Baylor is the least I can do.”
Wennerstrom is not the only member of Team Mustang affected by cancer. The disease has affected others on the team, including Smit, who lost an aunt and a 23-year-old cousin — a non-smoker — to lung cancer, a 27-year-old cousin to colon cancer and an aunt to breast cancer. In addition, Smit’s father is now battling Stage 4 throat cancer. “They (his father and aunt) were both long-time smokers, so I’m a huge supporter of all of the cities that have gone smoke-free,” Smit said. “I only wish the outlying areas of Dallas — Addison, Richardson, etc.) would adopt the same policy that Dallas finally put in place. So I’m doing this swim in honor of my dad’s battle, and in memory of my family members who have lost the fight against this horrible, relentless disease.”
The event will be the second Swim Across America event for Wennerstrom, who also swam across the San Francisco Bay in September. It will be preceded at 4:30 p.m. the day before (check-in at 4:00) by a Dallas Olympian Swimming Clinic at the Rockwall ISD Natatorium taught by Berube and a pair of former Olympic swimmers from the University of Texas: Josh Davis and Neil Walker.
The success of the Dallas open water swim, Wennerstrom said, depends not only on donations, but also the help of companies that have gotten involved. Now a field recruiter for NetApp (an international network storage, cloud computing, virtualization and storage efficiency company), Wennerstrom raised his effort to collect money for cancer research when he took part in one of about 40 events (that are unaffiliated with Swim Across America) coordinated by his employer in which participants had their heads shaved after collecting financial pledges for cancer research. The Gents Place, a barbershop and spa in Frisco, donated the staff for the head-shaving event in which Wennerstrom (and Bobby Warshaw and Andrew Wiedeman of FC Dallas, among others) got their heads shaved at Sherlock’s Pub in Addison.
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Former SMU swimmer Ryan Berube, who won a gold medal at the 1996 Olympics in Atlanta, will be among the Mustangs taking part in the Swim Across America open water swim June 11 at Lake Ray Hubbard (photo by swimacrossamerica.org). |
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The Dallas SAA event is being chaired by Daniel Watters and Andrea Dickson, each of whom swam in the 1988 Olympics in Seoul, Korea.
“We have a goal of raising $250,000 with this event,” Wennerstrom said. “With a little over a month to go, we had $125,000. So we can do it, but we need to keep going, and we need people to help. We have committed to raising $1 million for Baylor over four years. It’s a lot of work, but we’re on the right path.”
The fact that Swim Across America is driven by Olympic swimmers includes an extra element of irony for Wennerstrom, whose sister, Donnalee, swam in the 1976 Olympics in Montreal. Wennerstrom said the same competitive nature that made him and the other Mustangs swimming in the June 11 Open Water Swim into elite athletes is evident at Baylor Cancer Center.
“They’re competitive too,” he said. “If a hospital has one researcher who is phenomenal, they still want to build a world-class team. If you’re a well-known researcher, traditionally you want to go to a place like MD Anderson (in Houston) or the Mayo Clinic (in Minnesota). But the Baylor Cancer Center has some great researchers, too. We want to make sure they have what they need to keep doing their work. I swam at SMU and I make my living recruiting — it’s a natural thing for me to do this.
“I’m lucky to be alive and my brother is lucky to be alive. Thousands, maybe millions, are lucky to be alive, and the reason we are is because of people like those at Baylor Cancer Center. We need to raise money, but we also need to raise awareness, because just about everyone is either affected by cancer or knows someone who is. We have some great people involved with this event, and with Swim Across America, but we need more people to join in. Donate. Volunteer. Get involved. Tell people about this event, and others like it. They have made a lot of progress in cancer research, but there’s a lot more that needs to be done. We want this event to be bigger and bigger every year, because we need to continue to increase the money and awareness for the research they’re doing until a cure is found.”
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To support the Swim Across America open water swim, or to support the other businesses that have been active supporters of the effort to raise money and awareness for cancer research in Dallas:
To DONATETo SWIMTo VOLUNTEERInformation about DALLAS OLYMPIAN SWIMMER CLINICSWIM ACROSS AMERICA home pageNetApp / St. Baldrick'sGENT'S PLACE Barbershop and SpaSHERLOCK'S PUB