By Wade Coggeshall
AVON — Students at Brebeuf High School are required to perform a certain number of community service hours in a specified time.
As captain of the Brebeuf swim team and a member of the Avon Community Swim Team, Sarah Griffith is a busy high school senior. Adding community service to her schedule was not exactly ideal.
“At first it was a hassle to be required to do so many hours by this date,” she said. “I thought ‘why can’t I just do it for fun?’”
The Danville resident had a change of heart once she got involved in various projects, including working with blind children.
“I got a better appreciation for where I am,” Griffith said. “I came out just happy to help people. It’s a really good feeling and people appreciate it.
“I’ve come to love it, and try to bring that to the swimming community.”
No example is better than the swim-a-thon Griffith recently organized to benefit Project A.N.G.E.L., a non-profit organization in Hendricks County that serves low-income residents. She got the idea to do the fundraiser with the Avon swim team this summer.
“A lot of times you hear about swim teams doing swim-a-thons to raise money for their own team,” Griffith said. “I thought why not raise it for somebody else? The team doesn’t really need money.”
She presented the idea to the ACST’s board of directors and spent the next few months organizing it. Griffith knew of Project A.N.G.E.L. through her sister, who has helped the non-profit through her Danville school.
“I thought it was a good organization, especially with the poor economy right now,” Griffith said. “Families need help the most right now with Christmas coming up.”
The swim-a-thon idea eventually morphed into something emphasizing fun over competition. The swimming consisted of unusual relays such as dog paddle and kickboard. Almost 100 swimmers participated.
“It was all in good fun,” Griffith said.
A parent volunteering for the fundraiser suggested asking the Brownsburg Swim Club to participate, which they did.
“I thought that was a great idea,” Griffith said. “They’re the only other (swimming) team in Hendricks County and we’re doing it for a Hendricks County organization, so why not? We’ve always been competitive with Brownsburg.”
The partnership proved so fecund that there’s already talk of Brownsburg hosting a similar swim-a-thon next year. Not a bad idea considering this one raised $2,100 for Project A.N.G.E.L. The goal was $2,000. Many considered that lofty, but a bake sale and sponsors helped Griffith surpass it.
“The entire board of directors was blown away by what this girl did,” said Rita Hodson, president of Project A.N.G.E.L.’s board of directors. “We thought she’d raise a couple hundred dollars and that would be great. When she told us the total was $2,100, we were blown away. She’s amazing.”
Hodson said the money will be used to buy Christmas presents or school supplies and clothes for Hendricks County children. Griffith was told the donation was enough to fund 40 Christmases.
“One Christmas is good enough for me, so I was really happy when I found that out,” she said.
Hodson said more donations are needed since fundraising is down and demand is up this year. Project A.N.G.E.L. also accepts toy and food donations, but prefers money so it can buy exactly what is requested.
“We’ll take what we can get,” Hodson said.
Griffith is already planning her next community service project: a water safety day in February at Brebeuf.
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Online:
www.hcprojectangel.org
wade.coggeshall@flyergroup.com
