Help Zombies Swim English Channel
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Help the Zombies swim the English Channel - June 2015!
The Zombies are the Swim team of the Arch Academy, in San Diego, CA. They are a group of students with special challenges who are defying expectations and transcending limitations.
With autism, bipolar disorder, depression, anxiety, learning disabilities, behavioral problems, ADHD, drug or alcohol issues, these are students who are viewed by most people as having limited potential. At the Arch Academy, they are being challenged, and their achievements are astonishing!
Academically, all Arch Academy students are on a college prep track. With every success, each student's bar gets raised. The same is true for athletics. Swimming started in the pool: then summer swims in the Pacific Ocean were added. When this became routine, the Zombie Patrol* was "spawned". A group of 14 high school students, each with one or more of the challenges listed above, chose to join Arch Academy director Cheryl Zak for 6:00am ocean swims three days a week throughout the year, often in cold and rough conditions. Their goal was to do something spectacular: participate in the Alcatraz Sharkfest swim! All Zombies accomplished the swim from Alcatraz Island to San Francisco, CA on June 7, 2014!
What next? Raise the bar! The Zombies added nighttime swims and trained five times a week for the Catalina Channel Relay. On September 5, 2014, the Zombies left the Catalina Island shore just before midnight, and swam to Palos Verdes, CA, finishing the 21-mile relay in just under 12 hours without the aid of wetsuits or fins.
So far the Zombies have endured seasickness, 10 foot swells, jellyfish stings, anxiety, swimming for miles at night in the pitch black ocean, and have acclimated to hour-long swims in 58-degree water temperatures (BRRRR!!!) without wetsuits or fins. (Zombie leader Cheryl Zak is doing all this while living with MS, teaching by example that limitations can be transcended.) As a team and as individuals, the Zombies are justifiably very proud of what they have accomplished so far and eager for their next challenge, which is...
The Zombies are heading for the English Channel Relay! In June of 2015, the Zombies will travel to Dover, England to swim the English Channel, a life-changing opportunity that will forever transform how people perceive each team member's capabilities and potential. More importantly, the Zombies hope to change how society views all children with similar disabilities and challenges by showing the world what is possible!
*Zombie Patrol - the students chose this name for their team because waking up between 4 and 4:30am makes them feel like "Zombies".
Big thanks go to Dan Simonelli, the Zombie's awesome ocean swim coach, for working with the team and helping make all of this possible!
Arch Academy website
The Zombies are the Swim team of the Arch Academy, in San Diego, CA. They are a group of students with special challenges who are defying expectations and transcending limitations.
With autism, bipolar disorder, depression, anxiety, learning disabilities, behavioral problems, ADHD, drug or alcohol issues, these are students who are viewed by most people as having limited potential. At the Arch Academy, they are being challenged, and their achievements are astonishing!
Academically, all Arch Academy students are on a college prep track. With every success, each student's bar gets raised. The same is true for athletics. Swimming started in the pool: then summer swims in the Pacific Ocean were added. When this became routine, the Zombie Patrol* was "spawned". A group of 14 high school students, each with one or more of the challenges listed above, chose to join Arch Academy director Cheryl Zak for 6:00am ocean swims three days a week throughout the year, often in cold and rough conditions. Their goal was to do something spectacular: participate in the Alcatraz Sharkfest swim! All Zombies accomplished the swim from Alcatraz Island to San Francisco, CA on June 7, 2014!
What next? Raise the bar! The Zombies added nighttime swims and trained five times a week for the Catalina Channel Relay. On September 5, 2014, the Zombies left the Catalina Island shore just before midnight, and swam to Palos Verdes, CA, finishing the 21-mile relay in just under 12 hours without the aid of wetsuits or fins.
So far the Zombies have endured seasickness, 10 foot swells, jellyfish stings, anxiety, swimming for miles at night in the pitch black ocean, and have acclimated to hour-long swims in 58-degree water temperatures (BRRRR!!!) without wetsuits or fins. (Zombie leader Cheryl Zak is doing all this while living with MS, teaching by example that limitations can be transcended.) As a team and as individuals, the Zombies are justifiably very proud of what they have accomplished so far and eager for their next challenge, which is...
The Zombies are heading for the English Channel Relay! In June of 2015, the Zombies will travel to Dover, England to swim the English Channel, a life-changing opportunity that will forever transform how people perceive each team member's capabilities and potential. More importantly, the Zombies hope to change how society views all children with similar disabilities and challenges by showing the world what is possible!
*Zombie Patrol - the students chose this name for their team because waking up between 4 and 4:30am makes them feel like "Zombies".
Big thanks go to Dan Simonelli, the Zombie's awesome ocean swim coach, for working with the team and helping make all of this possible!
Arch Academy website
Organizer
Angela Dawson
Organizer
Carlsbad, CA
