Volunteers Extraordinaire

Chuck Redington and his family are new residents in New Seabury. and love being part of the community. They treasure their time on the Spit and can often be found cruising the waterways in their kayaks.

Chuck recently organized a swim to raise funds and awareness for SPB. As Chuck told us, “We are friends from all over Cape Cod who share the love of swimming. Over the years many in the group have competed all over the world in swimming events. These events include Save the Bay swims such as Save Buzzards Bay, Save Narragansett Bay, and Save Chesapeake Bay. When I moved here 2 months ago, I started to invite swimmers to my house several times a week to swim the Spit, around Poppy Island, or to the Poppy Inn. It became so popular I named my house ‘Swim Inn’.

I came across the SPB web site and was extremely impressed with the organizations mission. The video was amazing and helped motivate my involvement. I immediately noted there was no Swim event to raise awareness and funds for SPB. I proposed the idea to a small group of swimming 1.9 miles around the spit on July 17th and 18th. I asked for a $50 donation from each swimmer to SPB. My daughter Kaleigh and I designed a fun shirt and I offered a warm shower and breakfast after the swim. Part of the motivation for this informal fun swim was seeing so many charity events cancelled. Most of these swimmers are used to participating in events all summer. The result was we had fifteen swimmers raise $1000 and everyone just loved the beauty and challenge of the Spit. We hope to do it again and possibly make this an annual event!”

Those who swam the 1.9 miles, averaging 50 minutes, includes Tom Burt, Rick Rheinhardt, Mary Kaminski, Steve Hubbard, Bob Bertrand, Gary Cundiff, Trish Cundiff, Scott Brown, Matt Shenker, Joe Hebert, Moira McCullough, Patrick McCullough, Morgan Simms & Chuck Redington. Joe Deverna & Meri Gilson did the swim on a previous date. Heidi Williams, Charles & Carolyn Redington who did not swim, supported this event with a donation to SPB.

SPB thanks Chuck and his crew of swimmers for their generous donation.