Close to 230 swimmers hit the water on June 21 in Stamford, Conn, for the annual Swim Across America – Fairfield County (SAA-FC) open water swim, which benefited Alliance for Cancer Gene Therapy (ACGT) for the 19th consecutive year.
If you ask the organizers and the participants, the day couldn’t have gone any better. A streak of 16 straight rainy Saturdays ended just in time for a spectacular beautiful sunny day, providing a perfect backdrop for an enthusiastic event raising money for cancer cell and gene therapy research.
“One of the amazing things about this swim is it’s really a true community event,” said Nancy Carr, event director for SAA-FC. “When I look out and I see this sea of swimmers, boaters, land and water volunteers and spectators who all came out to support the swim from our community, and they’re all gathering with one purpose, one mission — to make waves to fight cancer — it’s inspiring. Cancer’s a pretty serious thing to be talking about, yet you see the joy on everyone’s faces who are participating and watching and it’s so uplifting and so meaningful to everybody who’s there to make an impact.”
The event featured three swim courses: a half-mile, one-and-a half-mile and three-mile swims along the Stamford/Greenwich shore, as well as a Kid’s Splash led for the second year by local six-year-old Willa Kosh, currently battling B-cell acute lymphoblastic lymphoma.
The swim wound up raising more than $400,000 (and still climbing), through local fundraising. Those fundraising efforts even included swimmers as young as 11-year-old Shep Jennings, who raised more than $9,200 for Swim Across America through bagel and bake sales and door-to-door fundraising in his community leading up to the swim. Shep swam the half-mile open water course at the June 21 swim.
Nationally, Swim Across America has raised more than $100 million from charity swimming events held in 25 communities across the country — from Nantucket to under the Golden Gate Bridge — since its founding in 1987. The Fairfield County Swim specifically has counted ACGT as its local beneficiary since 2007, supporting the funding for 15 ACGT research fellows who have directly benefited from funds raised by SAA-FC. In its 19 years, Swim Across America – Fairfield County has raised more than $5.9 million for ACGT.
Funds raised from this year’s swim are supporting three ACGT research fellows: Juan Fueyo, MD, of MD Anderson Cancer Center, who is harnessing the immune response to oncolytic viruses for glioblastoma (supported by Swim Across America 2023-2025); E. Antonio Chiocca, MD, PhD, of Brigham and Women’s Hospital, who is also uncovering how viruses kill cancer with an emphasis on glioblastoma (supported by Swim Across America 2024-2025); and Crystal Mackall, MD, of Stanford University, who is working on remote-controlled CAR T cells to fight cancer and hopefully tackle more solid tumor cancers with this approach. Dr. Mackall has been supported by Swim Across America previously in 2015, 2018 and now in 2025.
“I cannot think of a better beneficiary and a better partner in this mission,” Carr said. “I truly believe that cell and gene therapy is the future of cancer research. This is where the cures are going be coming from, and we are proud that 100% of the money that we donate all goes to research. ACGT’s scientific advisory council also does such a tremendous job of finding the best, the brightest and the most promising researchers.”
This year’s SAA-FC open water swim also featured an address by guest impact speaker Chris White, a cancer survivor and patient advocate who overcame his difficult battle with metastatic anorectal mucosal melanoma, through the benefit of enrolling in a cell and gene therapy clinical trial. White, who also recently spoke on a cancer survivor advocacy panel at ACGT Summit 2025, provided a message that resonated with the crowd, including Carr, a cancer survivor herself.
“His story is just remarkable and incredibly inspiring,” Carr said. “To be able to share his kind of success story at an event like our swim is really meaningful — because everyone need to hear these stories. They need to know that what they are doing and the funds they are raising are actually making a difference, giving hope to so many people, including me.”
In addition to the open water swim, Swim Across America – Fairfield County also held ten additional pool swims this summer from June through August to help make even bigger waves to fight cancer. This fall, a special Sip & Shop event will also be held to raise even more funds for Swim Across America – Fairfield County with ACGT as its beneficiary. So mark your calendar for Wednesday, November 5, for the Sip & Shop Greenwich event. To learn more about Swim Across America – Fairfield County or to donate, visit swimacrossamerica.org/fc.
