Community Corner

Edenwilde in Roswell Holds Benefit Swim Meet

The Roswell neighborhood bands together to raise funds to fight cancer through a swim meet, which is open to anyone.

Father’s Day this year was no doubt bittersweet for Jeremy Hutchinson considering it was the second anniversary of his wife’s death.

But Hutchinson and his two children, Abby, 12, and Alec, 9, are looking forward to this coming weekend when they will celebrate the life of their wife and mom by raising money to fight her killer: cancer.  The 3rd Annual Sheena Hutchinson Invitational Swim Meet will take place at the Edenwilde neighborhood pool on Saturday, June 25.

Sheena, a lifelong athlete, encouraged her children to play sports and subsequently got involved with the Edenwilde swim team because of Abby and Alec’s participation. When she died during the 2009 swim season, swim team leaders approached Hutchinson about holding a benefit swim meet.

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“Given her love of swimming and our involvement in the swim team, it seemed a great way to honor her,” he said.

The meet - which is open to anyone, from anywhere, of any age – raises money specifically for Susan G Komen for the Cure in Atlanta. Swim team age children, all the way through adults over 19-years-of-age, join in the meet events, which include freestyle, breaststroke, backstroke and butterfly. Hutchinson’s own children participate and love swimming alongside friends who are helping to fight the disease their mom battled. But he says, the highlight for them is getting to draw the raffle prizewinners.

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“They are remarkable kids that have handled their loss so well,” Hutchinson said.

The meet is run on a shoestring budget and relies on the many volunteers who come together to make it happen.

“Pretty much everyone gives their time freely, even lifeguards [and] starters,” said Huchinson.

Local businesses and people in the community donate the concessions and prizes, he added.

Those prizes include perks from Ritz-Carlton, which is the company Sheena worked for, as well as items from local restaurants and stores.

“We then sell raffle tickets all night,” said Hutchinson.

In its first year, the meet raised $10,000 – a remarkable feat for an event that was thrown together in just a few weeks. It’s a goal they would like to reach once again this year with help and participation from the local community.

“I think Sheena would be slightly embarrassed that such a fuss was being made in her name, but proud that we were using a tragic event to raise awareness and money,” Hutchinson said. “She was an incredible woman, [she] fought to the very end. [She was] very unselfish, many people have commented how she was more concerned by their problems than hers... I am constantly amazed by the people, that I meet for the first time, [who] have heard her story.”

The meet takes place Saturday, June 25 at 5 p.m. at the Edenwilde neighborhood pool on Edenwilde Drive in Roswell. Registration costs $10 and is possible until Thursday, June 23 at noon. The meet is open to anyone. Register at Active.com.

This article first appeared on Roswell Patch.


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