Kids & Family

Memories Inspire Sharon Resident to Swim One Mile

Betsy Drougen-Keith will do the Swim Across America event on Saturday.

Swimming one mile at Hull's Nantasket Beach this Saturday will be easier physically than emotionally for Sharon's Betsy Drougen-Keith.

Drougen-Keith, an avid swimmer, will participate in the Swim Across America event in memory of her friend "Lauren who died one year ago, just before my last SAA event. I also swim in honor of John and Nancy who inspire me with their strength and courage to meet their challenges."

"It's definitely a mindset that when you get into the water, you think about the people that you're swimming for, and it's inspiring," Drougen-Keith says.

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The 15th Annual DCR Nantasket Beach one-mile and half-mile swim is part of Swim Across America's two-day event supporting "the David B. Perini, Jr. Quality of Life Clinic at Dana-Farber, where experts help pediatric cancer survivors with an array of issues they face after completing cancer treatment," according to an event press release.

The 19th annual Boston Harbor 22-mile relay swim is Friday.

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"Swimmers pledge a minimum of $1,500 to participate. Swimmers taking part in the one and half-mile competitive ocean swims at DCR Nantasket Beach in Hull must raise a minimum of $250 each," the press release says.

Drougen-Keith says she has raised about $1,000 this year, her fourth Swim Across America swim. However, she anticipates that donations will help her surpass her fundraising total from last year, about $1,300.

"It's not a race. I don't do it for time. I just do it to finish," says Drougen-Keith, who teaches at the Sharon Cooperative School.

Saturday, she'll swim the mile option for the second straight year.

"I felt like, I was doing the half-mile. I love swimming. I try to swim all year round, and I felt that I should step it up," she says.

Drougen-Keith says she did her first Swim Across America half-mile a few weeks after reconnecting with her best friend from summer camp.

"We reconnected at a camp reunion. We hadn't seen each other in over 40 years," Drougen-Keith recalls.

"It was a wonderful reconnect. And it turns out she is a cancer survivor. She also likes to swim, as do I, and she told me about Swim Across America."


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