March 21, 2008

Swimmers met the challenge and raised awareness as well as money

By Aaron Salhotra and Achal Soni
Special to the Times

West Coast Aquatics, a local establishment for over 25 years, just celebrated their seventh Annual Mile Challenge Event on Mar. 19. The “Mile Challenge” - our main fundraiser for the year - challenges the kids to swim 1, 2, 3 or 4 miles at one time. One mile is 66 laps. Our top three winners were: Nathania Rockwood, who raised $850.00, Adil Salhotra from Carolyn Clark School, who raised $781.00 and Chloe Rasmussen from Quimby Oak Middle School, who raised $645.00

Mayor Chuck Reed, ESUHSD Trustee Frank Biehl, and West Coast Aquatics Marketing and Team Leader Sue McAllister

We had over 100 kids participate in this event, with a wide age range of 5 to 18. Big kids encourage the younger kids and younger kids want to be like the big kids. This event is not only a fundraiser for our program, but it also raises awareness to childhood obesity, a problem our society is faced with. Our kids are encouraged by their coaches to eat healthy, and with the ability to swim 5-6 days a week, depending on their age, they certainly get their exercise.

West Coast Aquatics was honored to have Chuck Reed, mayor of San Jose and Frank Biehl, board of trustees of East Side Union High School District (ESUHSD). Both offered their congratulations to the swimmers and the entire West Coast Aquatic family for our dedication and commitment to the community. They recognized our relationship between West Coast and ESUHSD and the community as a whole for over 25 years and encouraged another 25 years of celebrations together.

Though the fundraiser helps with our ongoing expenses, it also allows us to donate scholarships to the local schools in the ESUHSD and take our kids on travel meets to a variety of universities, which is always a good encouragement for our swimmers. All of our swimmers who swim with our program through high school go on to higher education, which is something we are very proud of, and that is something ESUHSD values as well.

West Coast Aquatics was able to raise over $13,000.00 so far, falling short of our goal of $20,000.00. However, we are certain that we will be able to raise the rest of our funds so that we may continue to offer a place for every child who wants to be in the water.

West Coast offers a year round swim team, swim school, pre-competitive, summer and winter water polo, summer team, Masters lap swimming, and day camp. For further information please visit http://www.westcoastaquatics.org.