Dear Friends, Family and Colleagues,
2025 has already been a big year for my family and me. Our daughter Piper had an important birthday in May. Kate and I celebrated our 40th anniversary on June 8. I’m turning 70 on July 31 and am planning on retiring at the end of this year!
I learned to swim as a kid in Madison, CT. in the waters of Long Island Sound. Later, we moved to Sunbury, Pa., where some of my best times were spent swimming, fishing and boating on the Susquehanna River. My adult life has been spent living near the Hudson River here in New York. All these places have served as reminders of the importance of clean water to the body and soul! Theologically, God created us from and for the water. From the water, we have our birth, our cleansing and our nourishment. We’re even baptized into it! When we swim, we move through it and are one with it. So we must honor the water and work to preserve and sustain it.
To celebrate these and other important events, I’m again swimming across the Hudson River on Saturday, July 26. This will be my fifth crossing, since I did it my first time 15 years ago. I’m not doing this alone, of course. I’ll be with 195 other swimmers as we travel from Newburgh to Beacon, along with accompanying kayakers. As well, I’ll be swimming with 2 old friends from Westchester Medical Center, Tom Frederick and Paul Egel, so there will be plenty of great company! It’s been fun getting back in shape for this one. I’ve been swimming 2 miles per week since April, dropped 16 pounds and feel stronger and faster than I have in years.
We’ll all be swimming to support the River Pool at Beacon. Decades ago, having a floating pool in the Hudson River was just a dream of Pete Seeger’s, the legendary singer and Environmental Activist. He was instrumental in passing legislation to protect the Hudson River and to return it back to the safe swimming place it has become.
Getting a safe facility for children and adults to swim and to enjoy the river safely was the next step. Seeger and other volunteers from Riverpool designed a permeable membrane pool that sits in Beacon Cove. It is staffed by lifeguards and is open for free to the public throughout the Summer. As well, Riverpool sponsors a water monitoring station within the Fishkill River, which feeds directly into the Hudson. The money we raise on this 2025 Hudson Swim will be used to maintain the Riverpool and to pay the lifeguards.
Please support me on my swim! You can make a contribution to help keep the Riverpool at Beacon in service for many Summers to come. Here’s my personal fundraising page again: https://ssl.charityweb.net/riverpool/swim/takemetotheriverdougphillips.htm
Thanks! Doug Phillips “Take Me To The River”
