Senior Will Crawford glides faster each second, sweeping his hands out to a Y position, then sculls his hands directly back toward the front, lifts his head to breathe and dives forward again.

But he wasn’t swimming in preparation for a competition. He was swimming laps for donations. The money he raised was a portion of the $3,833 the swim team raised for cancer research.

“Swim Across America is a great organization that takes something simple such as swimming and helps people in need,” Crawford said.

For the first time in its history, the swim team raised money that will be donated to Baylor Cancer center through Swim Across America. The event, “Breaststroke-For-A-Cure,” was held on November 9.

Students raised money by holding bake sales and asking community members for donations, surpassing their goal of raising $1,000.

The swimmers who swam 40 laps in breaststrokes and sought family and friends for donations felt that they were truly earning what they raised. For many of them their participation was affecting people they personally knew.

Within the swimming community alone, the Pearce coach passed away from cancer, as did the previous RHS swim coach.

“Everyone knows someone with cancer,” Swim Coach Regina Moss said.

Coach Moss hopes to continue raising money in the future – perhaps even collecting over $4,000 next years.

“Students have to take more ownership of the event, and not rely on their parents to donate and attract people,” Moss said. “Now we know what works and what doesn’t; we’ll just have to focus more on what does.”

A total of $3,833 was raised with $2,800 coming from the website.

With a determined attitude, the swim teams hopes to garner more support from the community members next year.