Steve Chestler of Old Westbury sadly lost his wife Carolyn Jaenisch to terminal adenocarcinoma, a form of non-small cell lung cancer, in November 2021.
Carolyn was an avid swimmer and swam with the Long Island Masters and Excel Swim Club for more than 21 years. While her diagnosis and passing were a huge shock, her family needed to do something to honor her life and love of swimming and found Swim Across America.
In 2022, Team Carolyn was formed. Captained by Steve Chestler and including Steve and Carolyn’s children Caitlin and Gregory, Team Carolyn quickly became the No. 1 fundraising team in the country for Swim Across America, raising more than $230,000 in 2022 and has already raised $120,000 so far in 2023 for an amazing total of more than $350,000.
This year, Team Carolyn is back and is bigger than ever with 58+ members on the team and is determined to top last year’s fundraising with an even loftier goal.
“We have teamed up with Team Excel, from Carolyn’s former swim club, and together, we are supporting others in our community who are fighting cancer,” said Steve Chestler. “One of those is Derrick Edwin. Derrick is a seasoned triathlete who has completed the IronMan competition – and did so in 2021 with cancer – unbeknownst to him at that time. Derrick’s diagnosis was shocking. He is just about one of the fittest guys you could meet, but it goes to show that cancer doesn’t discriminate. Even though Derrick is fighting cancer, he maintains a positive attitude and upbeat spirit throughout his treatment.”
Edwin was scheduled to join Team Carolyn on July 30 to swim and make waves to fight cancer.
“When Steve asked me to join Team Carolyn, it was a no-brainer,” said Edwin. “Swim Across America has provided me with an unbeatable support system. I hope to spread hope and positivity to all my cancer warriors fighting this disease. We can beat this!”
Swim Across America Nassau/Suffolk-Sound to Cove has raised more than $11 million in the past 23 years for the swim’s local beneficiaries: Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center, Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory, the Feinstein Institute of Northwell Health, the University of Texas MD Anderson Children’s Cancer Hospital (The Stacey Leondis Fellowship) and SHARE Cancer Support.
More than 250 swimmers participate annually to make waves to fight cancer.
Swim Across America was founded in 1987 with its first open water event in Long Island Sound. Since that time, the nonprofit organization has raised more than $100 million to fight cancer. In its 36 years of “making waves to fight cancer,” more than 100,000 swimmers and 150 Olympians have swum the circumference of the earth three times, uniting a movement to fight cancer that has created a groundswell of support spanning all generations. Today, more than 24 communities hold open water swims and charity pool swims each year, from Nantucket to under the Golden Gate Bridge, which support innovative cancer research, detection and patient programs.
Swim Across America’s funding of clinical trials for patients helped contribute to four FDA approved life-saving immunotherapy cancer treatments: Yervoy, Opdivo, Tecentriq and Keytruda.
More than 60 scientific grants are funded each year and there are now ten dedicated Swim Across America Labs at major institutions including Children’s Healthcare of Atlanta, John Hopkins Medicine Baltimore, Rush University Medical Center Chicago, Baylor Scott & White Charles A. Sammons Cancer Center in Dallas, Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center New York, Infusion Center at Nantucket Cottage Hospital, UCSF Benioff Children’s Hospital Oakland and San Francisco, Vanderbilt-Ingram Cancer Center in Nashville, and the Seattle Cancer Care Alliance.
The Swim Across America Nassau/Suffolk-Sound to Cove open water swim offers four different length swims: ½-mile, 1-mile, 5K or 10K as well as a Kids’ Splash. To learn more about the Swim Across America Nassau/Suffolk-Sound to Cove open water swim on July 30, or register to swim, donate or be a land or water volunteer, visit swimacrossamerica.org/soundtocove.
