Swimming: Spearheading charity event a slam dunk for Lake Forest’s Rowe, McCormick

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Peter McCormick was one of the swimmers who brought the fund-raising idea to his Lake Forest teammates. | Sun-Times Media

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Updated: February 27, 2012 8:23AM

We now know what Colin Rowe and Peter McCormick did last summer.

The Lake Forest High School juniors swam eight miles.

In four hours.

In Lake Geneva.

“What hurt afterward?” McCormick mused. “Everything.”

But he, and Rowe, did it for people who are really hurting. They stayed wet and active for 240 straight minutes to help raise money for the Special Operations Warrior Foundation, which supports, in a variety of ways, family members of slain or wounded U.S. Military heroes.

The grueling charitable event was dubbed, “Swim for Freedom.”

“Sore — I was definitely sore,” said Rowe, who works summers as a pier boy at a rental facility in Lake Geneva, Wis. “But it was a good thing, for a good cause.”

Not too long after recovering, both thought ahead — to late December. Scouts varsity swim coach Cindy Dell typically makes her boys swim 100 yards 100 times in a practice at that time.

There’s nothing like churning for 10,000 yards a couple of days after an eggnog-heavy Christmas.

“Peter and I thought, ‘Why not raise more money for the same foundation while we trained for a day in midseason?’ ” Rowe said. “We do distance then, too; it’s the challenging climax of our winter-break training.”

The philanthropic pair approached Dell with the idea.

Dell’s response, a nanosecond later: “Great idea.”

The initial plan was for each of the 22 varsity Scouts to donate $10. But each Scout has friends and a family.

Each Scout mentioned the cause to buddies and loved ones.

“All of us starting getting $20 pledges here, $30 pledges there,” said Rowe, who rows his frame as a sprint freestyler and anchors LF relays.

What they ended up getting for the SOW Foundation: $3,300.

“Unbelievable team participation,” said Dell. “So unbelievable. Our boys didn’t just raise money for those in need that day; they were reminded that there is more to life than swimming.”

While swimming forever in the school’s home pool on Dec. 27, McCormick was feeling it.

Feeling fatigued, feeling sore, feeling soaked to the bone.

“What helped me get through that workout was the thought of what our team was doing for such an important organization,” said McCormick, who competes in the 100 butterfly and 200 freestyle at most meets. “It probably was one of my best practices of the season. That practice, that day — it was meaningful. There are so many families out there, dealing with huge losses in their lives. Their loved ones made huge sacrifices for our country.”

McCormick and Rowe were interviewed about the event on, “The Morning Swim Show,” a program that streams daily on swimmingworld.com.

“The goal now is for our program to do something like this every year,” Rowe said.

Field trip (of dreams): Dell and her swimmers attended Saturday’s Iowa-Northwestern men’s and women’s swim meet in Evanston.

Iowa’s men and NU’s women won.

“I picked up a few things,” McCormick said. “Like how swimmers, at the next level, use stroke tempo. I noticed some other little things … their kicks, what they did off the walls.

“It was,” he added, “cool to watch.”

Said Rowe: “What an atmosphere, what a different atmosphere compared to the one at most high school meets. (Dell) is such a good coach, especially when it comes to motivation. Seeing what a college meet is all about motivated a lot of us.”

On the schedule: LF hosts Stevenson (4-0 in the NSC) at 5 p.m. today, and competes in the Evanston tri-meet, beginning at 5 p.m. Saturday.