John Driskell Hopkins, the Grammy award-winning bassist for the Zac Brown Band, and his family recently swam 2.37 miles for Swim Across America, a nonprofit dedicated to raising money for cancer research.
Hopkins swam on behalf of Team Amazing Grace, named after Grace Bunke, who died at age 14 in 2018 after battling osteosarcoma, a type of bone cancer, for four years. Only swimming for two years, she almost made the U.S. Paralympic swim team as a freshman in high school, joined the varsity swim team at her school, and participated in open water races.
So far, Hopkins has raised over $3,600 for the team on Facebook. He posted a time-lapsed video on Tuesday of him and his family swimming, with his song playing over the video. Hopkins swam 40 lengths, his wife Jennifer swam 16 lengths; and his daughters Hope, Faith, and Grace swam 19, 16, 40 lengths, respectively. Sophie McClellan also swam 36 lengths.
“Hope has no finish line,” the family can be heard saying as they swim, referencing one Swim Across America’s slogans.
Bunke was also the subject of an episode on “WaveMakers,” a docuseries about Swim Across America. Hopkins penned the theme song for the show called “I’ll Take You Home,” using in his lyrics parts of Grace’s quote: “Prayer is asking for rain; faith is bringing an umbrella.” Hopkins’ family is also close with the Bunke family, and he lends his voice to the series.
This year also marks the Amazing Grace tour, a series of 14 swims around the country to help raise money for cancer research, in memory of Grace’s 14 years and her 14 meets swum during that time. Vicki Bunke, her mother, plans to participate in all of them, the last of which is scheduled for October 2.
“I am swimming because I want to be like Grace and [her sister] Caroline,” Bunke wrote on her “Why I Swim” page. “I want to hold firm to faith, love, courage, selflessness, and above all, hope. Swimming helps me to continue to choose hope over despair. And if I continue to choose hope then Grace will never be gone. And that’s because as Grace taught us all…Hope Has No Finish Line.”
