Photo: Keelin Daly / For Hearst Connecticut Media

Swimmers dive in for the Annual Swim Across America Greenwich-Stamford version in 2015. The funds raised by the event go to cancer gene therapy research. This years swim is set for Saturday.

Swimmers dive in for the Annual Swim Across America Greenwich-Stamford version in 2015. The funds raised by the event go to cancer gene therapy research. This years swim is set for Saturday.

The Annual Swim Across America Greenwich-Stamford in the Sound along the border of Greenwich and Stamford is set this year for Saturday. The funds raised by the event go to cancer gene therapy research.

The Annual Swim Across America Greenwich-Stamford in the Sound along the border of Greenwich and Stamford is set this year for Saturday. The funds raised by the event go to cancer gene therapy research.

Swim Across America Greenwich-Stamford set for Saturday

GREENWICH On Saturday, more than 200 swimmers are expected to take part in the 11th annual Swim Across America Greenwich-Stamford Swim, part of a national effort to raise money and awareness in the fight against cancer.

Event organizers say 100 percent of the proceeds go to the Alliance for Cancer Gene Therapy, which supports cancer cell and gene therapy research.

The local swim is chaired by town residents Michele Graham and Lorrie Lorenz, both of whom have had a child who was diagnosed with cancer. Nicole Graham is celebrating five years cancer free; Brooke Lorenz is six years cancer free.

Out of all the fundraisers we go to, this is the most fun, the most family oriented and the most beautiful, Michele Graham said. Its at a beautiful waterfront setting and people are so happy and joyful to be a part of it. Our vibe is a fun one. We want people to have fun and have it be an event that lifts people up.

Special guest speaker at the event will be Alec Fraser, father of Greenwich High School graduate Julian Fraser, who died of cancer earlier in the year.

Julian Fraser had been captain of GHS swim and water polo teams. He will be remembered at Saturdays swim by Team Julian, led by GHS swim team coaches Terry Lowe and Lorrie Hokayem.

This event attracts a lot of young people who might not otherwise be so directly involved in the fight against cancer, Alec Fraser said. Many of Julian's swim team and water polo teammates participate, both in Stamford and California. Although everyone knows someone who has had cancer, many of the members of Team Julian were his teammates, and so very personally affected by his loss.

Alec Fraser is also swimming in his sons honor.

Although I am not at all a swimmer, it is meaningful to me to be in the water with so many of his friends and former teammates to honor his memory in a sport and venue that was so important to him, the senior Fraser said.

Swimmers will dive into Long Island Sound starting from 96 Cummings Point Road early Saturday right at the border between Greenwich and Stamford. At 7 a.m. the three-mile swimmers will start.

At 8:30 a.m., the mile-and-a-half swimmers the largest group will dive into the water; the half-mile swimmers will jump in at 8:45. Swimmers start to return to shore about 8:50 a.m.; the award ceremony is slated to start at 10 a.m.

Since it started locally, more than $3.1 million has been raised for ACGT by close to 2,000 swimmers totaling 2,500 miles in the water.

Among the participants will be Greenwich resident Andy Alisberg, who is swimming with the team of Peters Defeaters.

Cancer has continued to intrude on the universe of people I know and about whom I care, Alisberg said. Vietor Evans, a childhood of his daughters, his graduate school suite mate Paul Stuka and a friend, Robin Zothian, were among people who have lost their lives to cancer or are fighting the disease.

The memory of those wonderful friends whom we have lost to cancer in recent years burns bright, Alisberg said.

Nationally, the Swim Across America effort has brought in $65 million since it was founded in 1965.

According to the organizations fact sheet, nearly 1.7 million new cases of cancer will be diagnosed and 600,920 people in the United States will die from the diseases in 2017 alone.

More information is online at http://www.SwimAcross

America.org/Greenwich.

kborsuk@greenwich

time.com

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