The idea emerged to hold an open water swim event in Evanston when Kendra Robinson and her McGaw YMCA swim group participated in the Swim Across America’s Swim Across Lake Michigan event three years ago. The event raised money for the Rush University Cancer Center and Robinson’s swim group collected $60,000.
“We had a wonderful time doing the event,” Robinson said. “It planted the seed of doing swimming to raise money and doing something we love and having the ability to make a difference. That’s where the original thought [of holding an open water swim event in Evanston] came from.”
The Great Lake Plunge, the first open water swim event in Evanston, will take place on Saturday, Aug. 22, at Clark Street Beach and raise funds for Evanston Swims! and the Alliance for the Great Lakes. The Evanston Swims! program brings children from the Evanston public schools starting in second grade to the McGaw YMCA one afternoon a month throughout the year to teach them water safety skills and how to swim. The Alliance for the Great Lakes works to protect the lakes for recreational use and wildlife.
“The idea of everyone having access to [Evanston Swims!] is really exciting for us and we are very passionate about people knowing how to swim and being safe around the water,” said Robinson, the Great Lake Plunge event director. “I think if people learn to swim as children, they’re much less likely to run into water safety issues. We’re also working with the Alliance for the Great Lakes because obviously we want to keep the resource that we all love swimming in clean and swimmable for everyone.”
The Great Lake Plunge will feature Lake Michigan’s only 8K open water swim. Great Lake Plunge communications director Javier Monllor is pleasantly surprised with the interest in the 8K event so far.
“We are the only race in the area that has an 8K, so we’re the longest swim and it’s actually one of our most popular events,” Monllor said. “We didn’t expect that and a lot of people have signed up to do the 8K, so it’s very long and you have to be very good at it, but people enjoy it.”
In addition to the 8K open water swim, the Great Lake Plunge also consists of a 250-yard swim designed for beginning adult and child swimmers; two 500-yard youth swims, one for individuals under 14 and one for 14- to 18-year-olds; a 1.2-mile swim and a 2.4-mile swim. The 8K swim will start at 7:30 a.m., the 2.4-mile race will begin at 8:30 a.m., the 1.2-mile competition will start at 9 a.m., and the 250- and 500-yard swims will begin at 9:30 a.m.
Robinson found that most open water swim events catered to serious swimmers and individuals that compete in triathlons by offering 1.2 mile, 2.4 mile and 8K races, but she wanted to include additional events to make the Great Lake Plunge more inclusive to individuals of a variety of abilities and ages.
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“As we were looking at it, most of the other events are focused on people who are serious swimmers or triathletes and our idea was to make swimming more accessible to more people,” Robinson said. “We’re a lakefront community here in Evanston and so part of the idea behind our event is to be inclusive, so our event starts at a 250-yard swim that’s open to both adults and children who are beginners and are just starting out and have maybe never swam in the lake. That was the idea to make it a family-friendly, fun, community-style event.”
The picnic and awards will conclude the day’s festivities at 10:30 a.m. The post-race ceremony will feature food vendors and recognize the top-three finishers in each race with prizes and everybody will get a medal for participating.
“We hope to have a nice, fun party afterwards with food and drinks and everything, so we want people to stick around after the race and have fun and enjoy it,” Monllor said.
The costs to participate in the Great Lake Plunge are as follows: $100 for the 8K, $80 for the 2.4 and 1.2 mile races and $40 for the 500- and 250-yard swims. All participants must have a current U.S. Master’s Swimming membership or purchase a one-day membership for $15 in addition to the registration fee. Swimmers under the age of 12 must have a parent or guardian accompany them for the duration of the swim. Children under 18 are required to submit a waiver of liability form to participate. Individuals interested in participating in the Great Lake Plunge can register at www.greatlakeplunge.com by Saturday, Aug. 8.
Todd Marver is a freelance reporter for Pioneer Press.