As the girls swim and dive season started on Aug.12, fourth year diver and one of the team captains, Cerys Egan ’20, worked alongside the entire team early Saturday morning on Aug. 17 to make blankets for children’s hospitals.

Egan and the other captains coordinated the drive and collected fabric a week in advance. While working in SC gyms, the team broke off into nine groups combined with swimmers and divers from various grade levels, allowing for the girls to participate in some team bonding early in the season, while also helping a good cause.

This experience gave the 66 swimmers and 14 divers the opportunity to work together to make 18 blankets in approximately an hour, head varsity coach Scott Walker said. The homemade blankets were then donated to Project Linus, a nonprofit organization where blankets are collected locally and distributed to children in need.

“My favorite part was knowing we were making a difference while getting to know people who I don’t normally see or get to talk to at practice every day,” Egan said.

Every year the team volunteers in a service project that they all pick together. In previous years the team has made T-shirts for leukemia awareness, along with volunteering at Feed My Starving Children, a non-profit organization that packages and distributes food to people in developing nations.

 “We will support anything that they want to do to help,” Walker said. “I have no problem doing it and supporting them as long as they lead the charge.”

This year will be Walker’s 25th year coaching at LT and first year back coaching the girls since 2009. Walker allows for the girls to come up with fundraising events or organizations that they wish to help out, and makes time for them to do so as long as they are able to make it a team activity and work together. He hopes by doing this, the girls will be able to take on responsibility and make the most out of what they are given, Walker said.

The team is also set to have a dual meet that will take place at York on Oct. 3. The girls will all wear pink caps in support of breast cancer awareness month and the money raised from the caps that were bought, along with donations from the community, will all be donated to breast cancer research. Walker said the whole purpose behind this meet was for the girls to understand the awareness they can spread while learning more about the cause.

Throughout the season and in future years the team is hoping to do more fundraisers like the Pink Out and work with Project Linus again, along with other charities. However, for now, Walker is mainly focused on improving the team as they progress through the season.