Welcome to Grete Bakers Page!
Welcome! Thank you for taking the time to check out why I swim AND big thank you for considering donating. In the past, I swam because my mom and her two sisters swam in honor of their parents. My sister and I want to continue this tradition of swimming for those who's lives have been affected by cancer. This year our swims are dedicated to my dad, the one and only Jack Baker, who passed way from pancreatic cancer this past April.
While ice fishing was where him and I had the most fun and created some of the best memories, my dad was also my biggest swim fan (sorry mom). My dad loved nothing more then to retell my successes, hype up the nail biting finishes and help me create a game plans when I was the under dog. I have so many Jack Baker swim stories, like the one where he challenged me to a lake swim: I swam 2.5 miles, he 'swam' a half mile, to which he did in fact barely beat me to shore. There's one where he sat for 2 hours twice a day for 8 days when I trained at home over Christmas break in college I needed a "clock/timer" because my small town YMCA had an unreliable pace clock.
The best part of swimming for me was the daddy bear hugs he'd give me at the end of each competition day. I can't describe the feeling of knowing no matter how I preformed: good, bad or '200 fly' ugly; he loved it and I would always be his 'Booest of Bears'. In past years, I have swam for Grandma Kaye, Grandma Ann, Barb Brown, Mike Rusin, and Aunt Nora along with the many others I know who's lives have been affected by cancer and this year I swim for them but dedicate my 2 mile lake Michigan swim to my dad, Jack Baker.
If you are able, please support me and my team by donating to help me reach fundraising goal of $1,000 (go big or go home as Jack Baker would say). Money raised here will go to the labs at Rush University Cancer Center where they do early state research and clinical trails for a number of cancer types.
Founded in 1987, Swim Across America has hosted charity swims with one goal: to raise money for innovative cancer research that would lead to breakthrough treatments and therapies. Since then, Swim Across America has raised over $100M to fund the next generation of pioneers in oncology and cancer-support care.
Thank you for helping me #MakeWavesToFightCancer.
