Picture a beautiful late summer sunny day in Sunnyvale, hundreds of energized people of all ages and swimming abilities, hundreds of smiling volunteers and cheerleaders, a gorgeous Olympic sized pool at the Sunnyvale California Sports Center, a San Jose "Sharkie" floating in the water...all these came together to generate fun, excitement, and camaraderie for all attendees. AND over $120K in donations for services for community members with disabilities who benefit from Abilities United!
Countless thanks to the hundreds of people who made this event so enjoyable and successful. There are far to many important people to list here but here's a start! Special thanks to
- Chris Ream who has emceed the Aquathon for 16 years.
- Olympian Susan Roy for handing out the medals and trophies
- Homestead High School Interact Club students for helping with set up and the food table
- Mountain View High Athletes for Athletes for also helping with set up and for swimming and raising money for the Aquathon
- Cupertino High School students World We Dream team for videotaping the event and interviewing attendees.
- San Jose Sharks mascot, Sharkie for his annual “splash”, delighting children and adults alike.
- Nina Moseman, Special Olympic Gold Medalist, for being our honorary swimmer
Congratulations to our swimmers!
The fastest swimmers were impressive with elegant strokes and lightening fast speeds! The competitive spirit cut through the water with the results as follows among the Adult teams:
The fastest swimmers were impressive with elegant strokes and lightening fast speeds! The competitive spirit cut through the water with the results as follows among the Adult teams:
- Cisco Bommarito Barracudas won the Gold Trophy clocking in at 135 laps
- Sue Nommi Rising won the Silver Trophy close behind with 133 laps
- EDesignC Magnificent Marlins won the Bronze Trophy with 126 laps
The Family and Kids Teams were equally impressive and just as competitive!
- Athletes for Athletes won the Gold at 120 laps
- NVIDIA 2012 (team 2) won Silver with 110 laps
- Justice League of Adult Services won Bronze with 105 laps
We throw in a healthy doze of competition to win an iPad by raising over $1,000. This year we had dozens of swimmers qualify for the drawing, some raising well over $3,000! The lucky, random winner was a young member of the Orca team, who summed up his delight with a simple "Yes!"
All this was made possible by hundreds of donors from throughout the world who together donated over $120,000! We thank each and every one of you over and over again from the bottom of our hearts! Joining these generous individuals are our corporate sponsors:
Gold Sponsor/$10,000
- NVIDIA(8 years as sponsor, 11 years of team swimming!)
- Oracle (7 years as sponsor, 16 years of team swimming!)
- Intuit (7 years as sponsor; 22 years of team swimming!)
Many thanks also to the Lane sponsors:
- Café Zoe and SRI International of Menlo Park
- CFOs2GO of Walnut Creek
- MarketRiders and Mulcahy Family Dentistry of Palo Alto
- Milk Pail Market of Mountain View
- San Francisco Sailing
The AbilitiesUnited Aquathon fundraising goal is $175,000. Though we are well over
$100K we need to keep raising money to reach our goal. So don't stop
sharing your enthusiasm for the Aquathonhttp://www.abilitiesunited.org/aquathon! Donations can still be made
at www.AbilitiesUnited.org/aquathon
Share your Aquathon experience on Facebook!
On September 28 at 5 pm when you'll find out who won the Fundraising Gold, Silver, and Bronze trophies. You can "watch" the progress online www.AbilitiesUnited.org/AQresults
Be sure to "get in the swim" next year at the 35th Annual Abilities United Aquathon!
