For the first time in the history of Swim Across America, a dog (canine) named Rona will be the first to swim in one of our events. Rona is a 4-year-old foster failure adopted during the Coronavirus lockdown. She was fostered at eight weeks old and jumped in the pool on the second day we had her. By day 5, she was swimming better than I could and hence left me no other choice than to adopt her. She totally loves to swim and last year swam in a one-mile race around the Isle of Sicily in Winter Park. She finished in 32 minutes, finishing 53 out of 131 participants. She swims about 3/4 of a mile about eight days a month with our group and knows all the spots we stop at, enjoying racing a few of them always on the way back to the beach. RONA is swimming in Honor of Karma (canine), who lost her life to Cancer.

"I have been involved with Swim Across America for over 35 years and have witnessed the incredible outcomes that our organization has achieved thanks to the donations from many of you. One of my proudest achievements has been contributing to the funding of Memorial Sloan Kettering's Swim Across America Lab. This lab has successfully developed a Cancer Immunotherapy vaccine, which has revolutionized the way many cancer treatments have evolved today.

SAA funding has played a major role in clinically developing the four FDA-approved immunotherapy medicines: ipilimumab (YERVOY), nivolumab (OPDIVO), pembrolizumab (KEYTRUDA), and atezolizumab (TECENTRIQ) - Jedd Wolchok, Dr. Luis Diaz of Memorial Sloan Kettering.

Please visit these links to understand why I cried after witnessing these breakthroughs:

• Vimeo: https://vimeo.com/436927213
• Memorial Sloan Kettering News: https://www.mskcc.org/news/rectal-cancer-clinical-trial-msk-changed-everything-its-patients

With all the help from the SAA community (that is, all of you who have donated and participated in our events), we can now proudly say we have changed the way cancer is treated in at least some cancers and say we have changed the treatment for the better. This is just the beginning.

We have granted over $110M to fund cancer research and clinical trials at world-renowned research institutes and organizations, including Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center, Johns Hopkins Medicine, Moffitt Cancer Center, Chicago Rush University Medical Center, Children's Healthcare of Atlanta, Hollings Cancer Center, Mass General Hospital for Children Cancer Center, Massey Cancer Center, MD Anderson, Dana-Farber Cancer Institute, Morgan Stanley Children's Hospital of New York-Presbyterian, Alliance for Cancer Gene Therapy (ACGT), Rogel Cancer Center at the University of Michigan, UCSF Benioff Children's Hospitals, Levine Cancer Institute, Baylor Charles A. Sammons Cancer Center at Dallas, Nantucket Cottage Hospital, Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory, the Feinstein Institute of North Shore, Women and Infants Hospital Rhode Island, Siteman Cancer Center, UCLA Jonsson Comprehensive Cancer Center, and Seattle Cancer Care Alliance.

I am proud that the 2024 Swim Across America will host 24 Open Water Events to raise over $11M this year. To kick off the season, the Florida Keys will have its Third annual swim for our beneficiary in South Florida and the Florida Keys, The Miami Cancer Institute. We hope to raise over $150,000.00 and Make Waves to Fight Cancer. So please follow this link to sign up and swim or Volunteer: https://www.swimacrossamerica.org/site/TR/OpenWater/FloridaKeys?fr_id=6441&pg=entry

Donate to help and continue to find cures for fighting cancer.

Thank You,

Rona Coakley
Bob Coakley"