Help Erin raise money

In January, I started training to do the Pointe to LaPointe open water swim race, a 2.1 mile course that starts in Bayfield and ends at the marina on Mooningwanekaaning/Madeline Island. If it weren’t for a book, a sunset cruise, and access to a pool, I would have never bothered digging out my swimsuit from the bottom of a cardboard box waiting to be donated. 

I grew up swimming. Some of my most vivid childhood memories are playing in the water all day at my family’s cabin in northern Minnesota, sharing swim lanes with 4-6 other swimmers on the middle and high school teams, and treading water for what felt like hours while talking with friends. Once I went to college, swimming regularly faded from my life and I kind of forgot how good I feel in water. Eventually I dismissed being in water as a source for supporting my sense of well-being. 

Last spring, the book Enchantment: Awakening Wonder in an Anxious Age brought all those memories of water flooding back. Author Katherine May invites readers to reconnect to their sense of awe by exploring her own relationships to water, earth, air and fire. May lives in the UK and wrote about her love of swimming in the ocean, but after two harrowing experiences, realized her confidence and skills needed a reset. She headed to a pool and, with the help of a coach, began to unlearn everything her mind and body knew about staying afloat and moving forward to develop new techniques for swimming in open water with efficiency and sureness. I began to crave, and then obsess over what May was writing about: a deliberate reconnection to water and approaching swimming with a beginner’s freedom from expectation and self-judgment about the process.

Everywhere I looked were sparks of inspiration. My coworker April, coming to work in the mornings after a session in the pool, so willing to share her love of swimming and curating our still growing selection of swimming literature at the bookstore. The books themselves inspiring on their own. My commitment to becoming a swimmer grew throughout the summer, but I’m a goal oriented person, if I don’t have a destination or event to focus on, I lose motivation fast. I was in a holding pattern of wanting to swim until I could find a reason to swim, a reason to continue to swim after a bad day or two. 

Cue the sunset cruise. I’m the store manager at Honest Dog Books in Bayfield where I get to work with amazing people dedicated to creating deeper connections through literature. Honest Dog Books is a 1% for Rec Partner. This means that 1% of all in-store sales go to the non-profit Recreation and Fitness Resources (RFR) which operates the rec center in Bayfield, a place with the only public pool within a 70 mile radius, a gym, and space for anyone to gather and socialize. People of every age, size, and income bracket utilize the rec center and RFR also hosts programs like swimming lessons and sailing instruction for youth, fitness classes, and activities for seniors. The RFR hosted a sunset cruise around the Apostle Islands as a thank you to all of the 1% for Rec partners, on the cruise I talked extensively with Natalie, who works for RFR, about wanting to swim, her own Point to LaPointe race experience, and how to enable more community members to be able to participate in the swim. Until that cruise, I didn’t think of the Point to LaPointe swim as something accessible to me because I didn’t know anyone directly from the bay region who had done the race and my imagination of who swam the race was limited to thinking it was just seasoned professionals. As soon as I began imagining myself swimming the Point to LaPointe, I knew I wanted to commit to actually doing it. I had found a goal to swim toward and it's basically in my own backyard! And the pool to train in while the water is deathly cold is a 12 minute drive from my home! Woot!

I haven’t practiced swimming for 20 years. Coordinating my breathing, kicking, and arms all while trying to maintain a level, streamlined position in the water has been daunting at times, but the rush of water against my skin leaves me with a swimmer’s high that lasts for hours after getting out of the pool. Still, I know a swimmer’s high won’t be enough to maintain my motivation to train for the 7 months leading up to the race. This year, the Rec Center is offering its first ever open water swim clinic to help prepare community members for the race. I joined the clinic so that I can learn open water swimming technique while staying accountable to training until race day on August 3rd. The clinic includes once a month pool training sessions with a coach and personalized workouts every week. In July, we’ll hit the beaches together to practice swimming in open water before the race. I know the clinic is going to give me the skills and tools I need to keep swimming after the Point to LaPointe, and pursue other open water swimming challenges.

In the last month, I've already learned a lot about open water swimming that I had no idea about. Like how I will need a wetsuit specially designed for swimming to train in cold water (and that I will need lube to get the wetsuit on, to prevent chafing, and who knows what else - honestly, finding out about wetsuit lube made me wonder about open water swim culture, and that maybe I could title this fundraiser “Help Erin Buy Lube for her Birthday” so we can all have a good laugh). To be more visible in the water, swimmers tow a bright, inflatable buoy (its also an aid to grab if swimming becomes difficult from a cramp or breathing is stressful). In the pool, having a set of swim fins and hand paddles help to improve form and technique more quickly. These are all things I don’t own and didn’t imagine needing in my romanticized vision of effortlessly slicing through always perfectly calm, warm water. 

Committing to swim the Point to LaPointe race and the clinic is monetarily overwhelming. 2023 was a year of unplanned financial events starting with replacing the well pump, then a car, then the other car’s clutch, repairing a collapsing wall in the house, and regrading the yard to prevent future wall collapsing events. It has been distressing watching our savings deplete while other plans, projects, and home improvements we want to work on had to be put on hold. How could I jeopardize an already perilous financial state just to learn how to swim? 

I wouldn’t commit to training for this swim and doing this clinic if I only saw it as something I am doing alone. After a year of only reacting to mini-emergencies, choosing to commit to a known goal with intention is a way to reconnect with my sense of well-being. I’m also committed to supporting the communities and resources that support me. My registration for the Point to LaPointe is dependent on me raising funds to participate in the swim. Financially supporting me is also supporting the Bayfield Rec Center.

I’m asking you today to help fund my training to swim the Point to LaPointe race and the Bayfield Recreation and Fitness Center, so that anyone who wants to access their programs, pool, and facilities, can. 

Meeting my funding goals now means I can purchase the equipment I need to start to train to complete the Point to LaPointe race with the enthusiasm of a beginner and the skills of a knowledgeable open water swimmer.

Here is the breakdown of the funds I need to financially support my goal of swimming 2 miles in Lake Superior on August 3, 2024:

$1000 to participate in the P2LP swim

$600 for the swim clinic and coaching 

$500 for equipment (wetsuit, swim buoy, paddles and fins for training, and yeah…lube)

$240 for RFR membership through August which gives me access to the pool and gym

After meeting my needs, I will split the remaining donations I receive: 30% to my 3 clinic teammates, and the rest directly to the Rec Center. My teammates are part of my mutual support system in training to swim. When we all have the resources to train better, we all swim better together. 

Sharing this story, and stories, books, music, and art are just as important and builds inspiration and motivation to keep going on hard days. Hearing stories of seeing the sandy bottom of the lake and knowing 2.1 miles of swimming is over has me imagining what finishing the race will feel like for myself. I’ve been inspired countless times over the years following friends and acquaintances who’ve shared their own beginner’s journeys, be it a couch to 5k, finishing a degree, earning sky diving certifications, or training to swim the English Channel. 

Enthusiasm is infectious and I will continue to share and update anyone interested in my preparation for the Point to LaPointe. I’ll be doing this mostly on facebook, but email me at ewas8811@gmail.com if you would like to be kept up to date some other way. 

Thank you for all your support and helping my 36th year be a story I want to share.