Mark and Alondra - Swim Across America 2024
Ten years ago, our daughters Alondra and Isadora were babies splashing around the shoreline of Ohio St Beach while I participated in my first Swim Across America event with a few wonderful friends I met in my earliest days of masters swimming.
Alondra (now 14, and a proficient swimmer in her own right) must have had good memories of the event. This year, she told me she wanted to be part of it herself.
Swim Across America, we're back!
It's a good event, raising awareness and funds in support of the Rush University Cancer center research and treatment programs. It is also a beautiful way to celebrate all of those in our lives whom we've lost, as well as support those surviving this terrible disease. As these ten years have passed, sadly that list of loved one has grown.
This year we swim in MEMORY of:
- Robert Beening, my father. Engineer, coach, dedicated to his family. A healthy guy, somehow kidney cancer ravaged him so quickly. In just 5 years, I will be the same age at which we lost him. He has missed so much.
- Ursula Merten (2024), friend. Mother, musician, ass-kicker. So many warm memories, sharing life with our very best friends in some dirty punk rock shithole. Leaving behind such a powerful legacy in her young daughter
- Christina Wallace (2024), Alondra's 2nd grade teacher. No doubt this magnificent educator has profoundly shaped so many lives.
- Justin Maack (2024), family friend. Only met him a couple times, but a good man, clearly loved his family immensely. Taken too damn young..
- Abraham Arguello, Vikki's grandfather. Never had the opportunity to meet him, but by all accounts an absolute Legend!
- Cecilia Beening, my grandmother. Many of my best memories being a little kid were in her home.
- Pat White, my grandmother. My faded memories are of a vibrant force, I think she would like that.
- Germaine Gomez, tio. One of a kind, there will never be another GG.
- Sandra Greenwald, she fought for so long, but always had enough energy to spread positivity in all the lives she touched.
- Carol O'Connor Riesmeyer, family friend
- Raul Castro, spring training and cold beers must not be the same without you.
- George and Rita Cook, I didn't know you, but I know your son.. and he's a pilar in our lives.
...and so many others.
This year we swim in SUPPORT of:
- Shirley and Leo Cook, there aren't words - you are everything
- Debbie Gomez, I love seeing how you light up when your family is in the room, it's magical.
- Andy, FMC/Fossil Fish - get back in the water, man
- Patricia Potthast, family friend
...and so many others.
Love,
The Beening Family
Founded in 1987, Swim Across America has hosted charity swims with one goal: to raise money for innovative cancer research that would lead to breakthrough treatments and therapies. Since then, Swim Across America has raised over $100M to fund the next generation of pioneers in oncology and cancer-support care.
Thank you for helping me #MakeWavesToFightCancer