Cottontail Cobias summer league swimmers raise money to help build fish ponds in Haiti. Photo by Tim Peterson.
Members of the Cottontail Cobias summer league swim team know that not everyone has a 25-meter pool to swim in -- much less clean water to drink. That’s why this year, the team held a swim-a-thon fundraiser benefitting Fish 4 Hope, an organization that builds fish farms in Haiti so local residents can better support and feed themselves.
Rising Lake Braddock junior Maddy Altobelli organized the July 16 event at the Cottontail Swim & Racquet Club pool in Springfield. She learned about the needs down in Haiti through her church, Church of the Nativity in Burke. Altobelli’s father and sister recently went on a mission trip to the country and were a major motivation for her.
“Most kids don’t realize how different Haiti is from here,” she said. “We have water to swim -- they don’t even have it, really, to drink.”
Around 100 school-age swimmers raised money at Nativity and signed up per-lap sponsors for their swim-marathon. With pop, rock and Disney music blaring and a bright mid-morning sun shining, they cruised back and forth while parents, friends and other swimmers counted.
By the end of the event, the Cobias swam over 3,500 laps. Together with the $2,000 they already raised at the church, the team’s contribution is enough to pay for building one entire fish pond in Haiti.