{"id":3123,"date":"2014-10-06T18:45:17","date_gmt":"2014-10-06T18:45:17","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/lbpost.com\/articles\/life\/the-lbfd-swims-42-487-strokes-from-catalina-to-long-beach-to-fight-cancer\/"},"modified":"2014-10-06T18:45:17","modified_gmt":"2014-10-06T18:45:17","slug":"the-lbfd-swims-42-487-strokes-from-catalina-to-long-beach-to-fight-cancer","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/esd\/hi-lo\/the-lbfd-swims-42-487-strokes-from-catalina-to-long-beach-to-fight-cancer","title":{"rendered":"Public Safety Officials Swim 42,487 Strokes from Catalina to Long Beach to Fight Cancer"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

\"LifeSwim<\/p>\n

Photos by Asia Morris.<\/em><\/p>\n

On the sunny Saturday morning this past weekend, nearly one hundred people gathered at Alamitos Bay Landing to the chilling sound of bagpipes.<\/p>\n

\"LifeSwimThe crowd consisted of an unordinary group of people: pediatric cancer survivors, patients, their families and supporters… All were waiting to welcome 33 local firefighters, lifeguards and police officers, finishing their grueling journey of a swim from Catalina Island to Long Beach. The Long Beach Fire Department Pipe Band<\/a> set the tone to the joyful tears, congratulatory hugs and sighs of relief as the exhausted swimmers climbed upon the dock to hug and interact with the children of Jonathan Jaques Children\u2019s Cancer Center (JJCCC) at Miller Children\u2019s Hospital Long Beach.<\/p>\n

The Long Beach Fire Department (LBFD) and Miller Children\u2019s Hospital Long Beach partnered together for an open-water, overnight, swimming challenge benefiting research programs at JJCCC. Local firemen, police officers and lifeguards swam 28 miles overnight in a swimming relay, taking approximately 42,487 admirable strokes in an effort to endure the 10-hour swim between Catalina Island and Long Beach.<\/p>\n

\"LifeSwim<\/p>\n

The swimmers were greeted with sign-holding, hand-waving, ecstatic JJCCC patients, families and supporters on Saturday morning, the end of the swim marking the grand finale to the Childhood Cancer Awareness Month festivities. This is the second year in a row the LBFD has partnered with Miller Children for the Catalina Swim Challenge to raise money for pediatric cancer research. While last year\u2019s event only attracted six swimmers (one relay team), this year\u2019s challenge boasted more than thirty participants.<\/p>\n

\"LifeSwimFirefighter Curtis Bowman, who started the event last year and played a large part in organizing this year\u2019s swim challenge, said, \u201cLast year, myself and other firefighters and lifeguards wanted to challenge ourselves and we thought we could raise some money for charity while doing it. So we contacted Miller Children\u2019s Hospital and started our relationship with them… It\u2019s quite an accomplishment when you see it all come together and you know, I\u2019m not the only one who got this thing going. There\u2019s thirty-three swimmers, paddlers, all the guys in the boats, all the Long Beach people. There\u2019s a lot to be said for everyone who participated.<\/p>\n

“We did a lot of leg work between the two events. We tried to recruit other people, the police department, lifeguards. This event is good for morale, it\u2019s good for the firefighters and lifeguards, it\u2019s a good bonding experience for a good cause. If we can raise as much money as possible for the kids who need it at the hospital…it\u2019s good for the community, it\u2019s just a win-win for everyone.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"LifeSwim<\/p>\n

Keith Dixon smiles as he approaches Curtis Bowman (right) after finishing the swim.<\/em><\/p>\n

The 28-mile swim is completed by relay teams of six people, with each participant swimming for thirty minute legs then returning to the accompanying boat. Tyler Anderson, a Long Beach native and lifeguard, posed with Sydney Waldrop, a 9-year-old year old cancer survivor who was treated at The Center for Langerhans cell sarcoma, for a picture. Anderson described the swim from Catalina Island to The Boathouse on the Bay as “really choppy at the get-go” but with “warm water” and “glass” once the sun was up.<\/p>\n

\"LifeSwimParticipating firefighters put in weeks, and sometimes months of training time before the event, knowing full well that their presence will truly make a difference.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe do half hour to hour-long ocean swims three to four times a week,” Anderson [pictured right with Waldrop] explained. “The challenge is just one more fundraiser that we can do, that people can get excited about. You know when people hear that we\u2019re swimming across the channel they get pretty fired up, so it\u2019s fun.\u201d<\/p>\n

Laura Perez, who watched the swimmers arrive with her husband, Beto, and her daughter Bella, who turned two in July, described her daughter\u2019s battle with Leukemia.<\/p>\n

\u201cBella was born with Leukemia,” Perez said, “diagnosed at three weeks of age and began her first round at three weeks, then she was in the hospital for seven months. She had Acute Myeloid Leukemia. She\u2019s been cancer free for almost two years.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"LifeSwim<\/p>\n

On working with Jonathan Jaques Children\u2019s Cancer Center, Perez only had positive comments to give, exclaiming, \u201cWe made it through with the hospital. They\u2019re like family now and we wouldn\u2019t have wanted her anywhere else.\u201d<\/p>\n

Perez explained that fundraisers like the Catalina Swim Challenge are fundamental to finding a cure and can boost morale for the pediatric cancer patients and their families.<\/p>\n

\"LifeSwim\u201cThe children feel loved and it raises awareness and it just shows them that people notice and want to help,” Perez [pictured left with Keith Dixon and Bella Perez] said, “that we\u2019re taking the steps toward a cure. Every day, every dollar that they raise is one step closer to a cure.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cTo see all those swimmers in the water, it\u2019s a little bit humbling,” Bowman said. “I can\u2019t believe all these people were this excited about participating and it was just a good feeling to see everyone make it over safely. It\u2019s nerve wracking to get into the ocean in the middle of the night for a swim. We did it for a good cause…You have to keep in the back of your mind that you\u2019re doing it for the kids at the hospital. One thing that kept me going was just the thought of what these kids are dealing with, for me to feel a little scared in the ocean is nothing compared to what these kids are going through.\u201d<\/p>\n

You can still donate to the cause here<\/a>. <\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

On the sunny Saturday morning of October 4, a hundred or so people gathered at Alamitos Bay Landing to welcome local firemen, police officers and lifeguards who swam 28 miles overnight from Catalina Island to Long Beach, taking approximately 42,487 admirable strokes in a fundraising effort to support the Jonathan Jaques Children\u2019s Cancer Center at Miller Children\u2019s Hospital Long Beach.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":136,"featured_media":68398,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"newspack_sponsor_sponsorship_scope":"","newspack_sponsor_native_byline_display":"inherit","newspack_sponsor_native_category_display":"inherit","newspack_sponsor_underwriter_style":"inherit","newspack_sponsor_underwriter_placement":"inherit","inline_featured_image":false,"newspack_ads_suppress_ads":false,"newspack_popups_has_disabled_popups":"","_EventAllDay":false,"_EventTimezone":"","_EventStartDate":"","_EventEndDate":"","_EventStartDateUTC":"","_EventEndDateUTC":"","_EventShowMap":false,"_EventShowMapLink":false,"_EventURL":"","_EventCost":"","_EventCostDescription":"","_EventCurrencySymbol":"","_EventCurrencyCode":"","_EventCurrencyPosition":"","_EventDateTimeSeparator":"","_EventTimeRangeSeparator":"","_EventOrganizerID":[],"_EventVenueID":[],"_OrganizerEmail":"","_OrganizerPhone":"","_OrganizerWebsite":"","_VenueAddress":"","_VenueCity":"","_VenueCountry":"","_VenueProvince":"","_VenueState":"","_VenueZip":"","_VenuePhone":"","_VenueURL":"","_VenueStateProvince":"","_VenueLat":"","_VenueLng":"","_VenueShowMap":false,"_VenueShowMapLink":false,"_":"","_author_alias":"","cap-aim":"","cap-description":"","cap-display_name":"","cap-first_name":"","cap-jabber":"","cap-last_name":"","cap-linked_account":"","cap-newspack_employer":"","cap-newspack_job_title":"","cap-newspack_phone_number":"","cap-newspack_role":"","cap-user_email":"","cap-user_login":"","cap-website":"","cap-yahooim":"","newspack_article_summary":"","newspack_email_html":"","newspack_email_type":"","newspack_featured_image_position":"","newspack_hide_page_title":"","newspack_hide_updated_date":false,"newspack_post_subtitle":"","newspack_show_share_buttons":"","newspack_sponsor_byline_prefix":"","newspack_sponsor_disclaimer_override":"","newspack_sponsor_flag_override":"","newspack_sponsor_only_direct":"","newspack_sponsor_url":"","newspack_article_summary_title":"Overview:","newspack_show_updated_date":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[792,1215],"newspack_spnsrs_tax":[],"coauthors":[],"class_list":["post-3123","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-hi-lo","tag-lbfd","tag-miller-childrens-hospital-long-beach","entry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/esd\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3123","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/esd\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/esd\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/esd\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/136"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/esd\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3123"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/esd\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3123\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/esd\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/68398"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/esd\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3123"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/esd\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3123"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/esd\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3123"},{"taxonomy":"newspack_spnsrs_tax","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/esd\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/newspack_spnsrs_tax?post=3123"},{"taxonomy":"author","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/esd\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/coauthors?post=3123"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}