Sadie had a way of making everyone smile - all of the time. She lived life to the fullest no matter what she was doing. Much of Sadie's time was spent in and around the pool, at practice, at swim meets, and simply being with people. Sadie swam because of the friends she made at the pool and for the love of the sport - so how can we foster this in other kids?

In response to your outreach, we created a way to accommodate people's desire to contribute something tangible to remember Sadie. Because Sadie never met a stranger on the pool deck, we hope to honor her enthusiasm for swimming in our community by using all contributions to partner with the City of Harrisonburg to create a "Swim by Second" program. The "Swim by Second" program will offer City of Harrisonburg residents in kindergarten through second grade the opportunity to learn how to swim for free. The swim lessons will be multi-week packages offered through the City of Harrisonburg Parks and Recreation, and this ongoing program funded by these donations was approved by Harrisonburg City Council on February 27, 2024. What better way to honor Sadie's memory than to take everything Sadie embodied through swimming and share that with other kids who need to learn to swim? We opened a Fidelity Charitable Giving Account, which can be used to support non-profit and municipal projects, and we will directly transfer all contributions from this GoFundMe memorial initiative to that "Swim for Sadie Memorial Fund" to be used to support the "Swim By Second" initiative through the City of Harrisonburg Parks and Recreation Department.

Thank you for helping us to honor Sadie.