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Swim to School: A Different Take on the Morning Commute

Mallory Noe-Payne
/
WVTF

We’ve turned the corner past Labor Day, which means it's time to adjust to the fall commute. Back to school means waking up earlier, packing lunches, and catching the bus. 

But some students in Richmond said goodbye to summer last week with an entirely different type of morning commute, swimming to school in the James River. 

It’s early morning and we’re standing on the banks of the James River, the sun is still low in the sky and there’s a golden fog rising from the water.

But the peace doesn’t last long, as high-school students from nearby Trinity Episcopal School launch themselves in.

Swim coach and science teacher Alice Phillips shouts directions.

"Keep the kayakers and paddle-boarders between you and the middle!" Phillips says "If you start to struggle stay a little bit closer to shore!"

This morning, students are swimming, kayaking, and paddle-boarding to school.

Trinity is a short 5-minute walk from the river just outside of Richmond. The students are putting in from a student’s backyard about a mile downstream.

“This is our third year doing it, the first year we actually swam across and downstream, and then this year we’re doing the same course that we did last year,” says Phillips.

She and a handful of other teachers are joining about 50 students who are doing the swim. Some are swimming a full mile, others are opting to start halfway in.

“We just have a lot of fun, it’s a great way to start the day and it’s kind of like bike to school, or walk to school, jog to school," Phillips says. "It’s just a different take on a commute.”

Ned Trice is another teacher at Trinity, and the mastermind behind swim-to-school day.

“There’s something that feels really good in the same way that when you walk up a ski slope and then ski back down you feel such a sense of accomplishment as opposed to when you take the lift," Trice says. "And I think when you swim to school you feel really good in the morning, as compared to if you just drive.”

While this activity is just one day a year, it’s part of a much larger outdoors program that has students in the river and on the trails all-year long. Trice says there’s a real value in learning about science and the environment outside of the classroom.

“I think when you do it you remember something for a lot longer, and when you remember it for a lot longer that makes an impression and then you’ll be more likely to pass that on to other people,” says Trice.

Back on the river, one mile and about an hour later, students are drying off and catching up with their friends.

Sophomore Brian Flood says the journey was rough, so difficult he can't eat any of the doughnuts spread out for students who have finished. 

"I’m probably going to brag and say I woke up at 6 am, like I normally do for morning practice, but on the river," says Flood, a member of the swim team. 

Some students who did the swim were proud, and others said they felt lucky -- to have the river in their backyard.

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