Aquathon swimmers averaged 135 laps as kids raise money to keep swim team legacy alive
Feb 06, 2025
The Bar Harbor Story is generously sponsored by Side Street Cafe.
BAR HARBOR—One stroke. One kick. Another. One lap. One turn. Another. Combine endurance with muscle memory with what seems like choreography. Now add water.
Next, imagine swimming 135 laps in the MDI YMCA pool and you’ll be imagining exactly what the average lap count was for the MDI Sharks last weekend.
Now, add a party that happens every year.
The MDI Sharks swam for the annual aquathon, an event that’s gone on since the late 1970s, says Coach Jim Willis.
It was started by Lenny DeMuro. It’s become a Shark legacy.
Year after year, the swimmers collect pledges for the laps that they do, trying to support each other, trying to support their team, trying to make sure that it keeps on keeping on and that swimmers who might not have the funds others do still get to be a part of the team.
“We’ve watched both our girls swim past their goals at the aquathon for the past 13 years, and they’ve never ceased to amaze us,” said Marie Yarborough. “It’s such a fun event to watch-some of the swimmers are as young as 5 years old. On top of that, the High School Sharks are usually coming off a Friday night competition, a Saturday morning practice, and another Saturday meet—then they get back in the pool on Sunday morning and swim a few thousand yards to raise money for the team. It’s incredible, really and our island community is always so generous in sponsoring these formidable athletes. The least we can do as parents is throw them a giant party on deck, with pancakes and breakfast treats, games with prizes, and great decorations and music. They are the ones that do the really hard work! We’re just along for the ride to support them.”
“The goal is to keep program cost lower for swim team members and provide scholarships for those in need. It is the only fundraiser that the Sharks do during the course of the season,” Willis said.
This year’s event was organized by parents Marie Yarborough and Kristi Bond. Swimming is a community building event because of its needs from the swimmers’ support teams.
“Swimming requires parents to volunteer, whether it is helping at meets, other events and the aquathon, they are always there to help,” Willis said.
At the aquation this is especially true.
“Each parent is required to count their child’s swim, this allows them to see how they are progressing and allows the child to show how long they can go. Our aquathon is a party organized by the parents that provides the swimmers a great place to be on a Sunday morning in Bar Harbor,” Willis said.
Connection and working together while going after goals is all part of swimming and also character building.
“Swimming is a team sport that gives each individual the chance for success through discipline, hard work, commitment, and belief in themselves,” Willis said.
Some swimmers swam more than 200 laps in just 90 minutes. Typically, the event raises more than $30,000. Last year’s event was the most successful so far. This year, they swimmers are still gathering funds to try to hit that goal and keep the legacy and the Sharks swimming. They hope to raise $36,000.
“I am always amazed on Aquathon Sunday by the amount of swimming that the Sharks do and this year we had the highest average lap total of 135/swimmer. We had 73 swimmers participate on Sunday and a few more will makeup during the following weeks,” Willis said.
The swim lasted from 8 a.m. to 12:30 p.m.
All photos courtesy of Marie Yarborough
Pledges can be made online through the MDI YMCA website.
https://www.mdiymca.org/aquathon
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