Dear Editor: Those who choose to swim laps in the ocean in front of the Sitka National Historical Park for sport are a fun-loving bunch. I can say this because I spent time with this bunch during the events around the Aug. 3 Change Your Latitude Open Water Race (even though I personally wouldn’t dream of getting in that cold water). The race is a fundraiser for the Baranof Barracudas, Sitka’s swim club.
Swimmers from Anchorage, Fairbanks, Washington, California, Arizona, Pennsylvania, Hawaii, Wisconsin, and Florida came to participate in the Change Your Latitude Open Water race. This convergence of fun-loving people at an event in Sitka was made possible with help of our local businesses and organizations, who I want to shout out. The Fisherman’s Quay provided financial, logistic, and venue support as well as much of the manpower needed to run the swim and its events. Sea Mart provided support by sponsoring the food for the after-race BBQ. North Pacific Seafoods and The Fisherman’s Quay provided the salmon that was served at the pre-race potluck. The Sitka Sound Science Center hosted the race on its grounds and at Sage Beach. Russell’s and LFS provided door prizes. The Sitka Fine Arts Camp let us borrow tables and chairs for the potluck. Tents were borrowed from our local Rotary Club chapter. Sitka’s Fire Department and the United State Coast Guard provided motor boat support. In addition to these local businesses and organizations, Xterra, a wetsuit/paddle board company, sponsored the race. Local individuals also made this convergence of fun-loving open water swimmers possible. An event like the Change Your Latitude Open Water race requires people to do the registration, timing, coordinating, setup/take down, cooking, boat driving, kayaking, medical support, and too many other jobs to list. If I tried to name every volunteer who filled these jobs, surely the Sentinel would cut me off for taking too much space. The end result was a good time being had by a bunch of fun-loving open water swimmers. I think that was pretty cool. It is also pretty cool that the Change Your Latitude Open Water race brought in funds that will help the Baranof Barracudas keep Sitka’s kids swimming. Thank you all!
Brent Edwards,
Change Your Latitude
Safety Coordinator
