Swim for Swan’s Island

My name is Sage Dentremont and for my senior exhibition I have trained to swim from Swan’s Island to Bass Harbor. I am a Swan’s Island resident but I spend most of the school year on Mount Desert Island so I can do high school extracurriculars.

So what are we fundraising for?
There is no pool on Swans’s Island so pre-schoolers who want to learn how to swim and students who want to learn more advanced swim techniques have no place to do so on island. I learned to swim at the Down East Family YMCA and while they are currently not having swim lessons, the money raised here will go towards future swim lessons for island kids. I calculated the approximate cost of swim lessons using the price of lessons from early spring of this year and the price of ferry tickets(average of off season and peak prices). 

$325.00 for pre-schoolers

$406.00 for children 6-17

Prices of lessons may increase as COVID-19 may lead to smaller lesson sizes and a cleaning cost.

I have worked at the Burnt Coat Harbor Lighthouse on Swan’s Island for four summers. I joined the MDIHS Swim team my freshman year. Many lighthouse visitors have asked if I swim to school after hearing about how some students commute to school on the ferry every day. Last winter I started to think about how cool it would be to be able to say, “Well, technically I have!”. The ferry route is about 6 miles. I plan to swim from Swan’s Island to Bass Harbor Tuesday September 1st.