With the help of a relay team, Doug McConnell will once again attempt a charity swim across the Muskeget Channel between Nantucket and Martha’s Vineyard.

The event will take place sometime between July 22 and 24, depending on the weather. The money raised will help the Martha’s Vineyard YMCA continue to provide free swimming lessons for Island children.

“They’re just finding these kids all over the Island who just aren’t water safe and that is so terrifying,” said Mr. McConnell, who along with his team wrote a $15,000 check to the YMCA upon completing the crossing last year. 

Mr. McConnell is an experienced swimmer who has completed open water solo swims across the English Channel, the Catalina Channel and the Ka’iwi Channel as a way to raise money for medical research and other charitable outlets. He even finished a 29 mile solo swim around Manhattan. 

On three separate occasions, he attempted to cross the 18-mile Muskeget Channel, however, due to difficulties navigating the swift tidal current between the two islands, he was forced to end the crossing before making landfall. 

“It was terribly disappointing, as you would imagine,” he said.

Mr. McConnell remained determined to finish what he started and last year put out the call to a group of Island swimmers.

“Last year, we had the idea of including other people to have an open water relay and it just worked beautifully,” he said.

The team included Mr. McConnell, Josh Thomson, Greg Mason, Jon Chatinover, Andy Neuberger, Noah Froh, Jason Snow, Allie Keefe and Jennifer Passafiume.

Mr. McConnell’s open water journey began in 1996 after his father, a practicing veterinarian for over 40 years, was diagnosed with Amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS). 

“When my father was first diagnosed he said, ‘In three to five years I’ll either suffocate or starve to death.’”

Mr. McConnell’s father died from ALS in 2006, 12 years after he was diagnosed with the disease. Only a few months after his father’s death, Mr. McConnell’s sister, Ellen, was also diagnosed with ALS. She managed to live with ALS for 12 years before finally succumbing to the effects of the disease.

“Watching people in your family, people you love, get to the point where they struggle to breathe or they can’t feed themselves is pretty agonizing to watch,” Mr. McConnell said. 

Since that time Mr. McConnell has used his open water swimming as a way to raise money for ALS research. To date, Mr. McConnell’s swims have provided roughly $3.5 million dollars to Northwestern’s ALS research laboratory in Chicago.

Mr. McConnell and the rest of the team are planning to conduct two relays across the channel this year, with four to five swimmers per group.

“If there are more people who are interested in participating in an open water relay they can get in touch with us,” Mr. McConnell said. “We can get more boats and we’d love to have more swimmers.”

For more information, visit alongswim.org.