Report courtesy of Libby Alexander, Splash Foundation, Hong Kong.
Swimmers from all walks of life will take part on March 18th’s charity event to raise funds for the Splash Foundation, Hong Kong’s only charitable swim school for domestic workers and low-income kids.
Co-founder Libby Alexander explains, “This year 250 participants will join Olympic swimmers Camille Cheng (2016 Rio), Sandy Chan (2020 Sydney and 2004 Athens) and Hannah Wilson (2004 Athens, 2008 Beijing and 2012 London) as they swim as far as they can in 30 minutes to raise money for the Splash Foundation.
Held at Canadian International School, the Splash Dash Relay will bring together people who have just learned to swim, with recreational swimmers, squad swimmers and Olympians under one roof. Teams will be raising money to give adults and kids from marginalized communities in Hong Kong the opportunity to learn to swim.
Our aim is to bring together people from different backgrounds who share a love of swimming. It will be amazing for our participants – some of whom only learned to swim a few months ago – to be on the starting block with these Olympic athletes.
That kind of opportunity doesn’t come along every day, and it’s especially exciting for some of our Splashers to see just where a little bit of swimspiration can take them.”
The Splash Dash Relay is sponsored by leading international law firm, Herbert Smith Freehills, and organised by Splash, Hong Kong’s only charitable organisation dedicated to bringing swimming opportunities to migrant workers, refugees and underprivileged young people in Hong Kong.
Linh Carpenter, Race Director and Senior Splash Coach said, “In the space of three years, we have taught more than 1,000 people to swim. Some of whom, for one reason or another, never had the means nor the opportunity to do so before.
For many of them, the Splash Dash Relay will be their first competitive race and they are a little nervous. But super excited at the same time. The Splash Dash Relay is the culmination of their remarkable determination to learn an invaluable life skill. They want to show the rest of Hong Kong what they can do.”
The 250 swimmers and volunteers will be coming together to support the belief that there should be no socio-economic barriers in learning how to swim. Splash’s goal is to teach 5,000 people to swim by 2020. But Splash is about so much more than just swimming. Our vision is to create a community where people can build their confidence, improve their health and well-being and flourish, in and out of the water.
For more information, visit www.splashfoundation.org.
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