We had heard stories of how the swimming community was dealing with the devastation left in Hurricane Harvey’s wake, but we wanted to really see the impact it had left. So SwimSwam visited the Houston area to hear about how Harvey had affected the swimming family, and how the swimming family had dealt with it and given back.
SwimSwam had heard that Rice University was doing what they could in their relief effort, but what we found out was that they really went above and beyond. The womens swim team gave back to their community in several different ways: giving long hours at the George R. Brown Center, starting a crowdrise fundraiser, and volunteering at the rec center.
But one way they came up with to give back stood out to us as swimmers. They wrote letters to their club teams back home asking for spare equipment (caps, goggles, fins, paddles, kick boards), for club teams in Houston who had been affected by the hurricane. The response was tremendous: not only did they receive tons of equipment, but many clubs sent anything extra they had, such as snacks or bottled water in addition to spare equipment.
Thank you, ladies!
Affected. Geez.