High School Students Plan Fundraising Swim for Cancer Support

Two local high school students are swimming to make a difference and inviting the community to join them.

Martha’s Vineyard Regional High School juniors Leah Thomson and Zoe Treitman are spearheading the Island’s first Swim Across America, to raise money for cancer support on the Vineyard. The open water swim will take place in Menemsha on the morning of July 18.

Ms. Thomson and Ms. Treitman met with the Chilmark select board last month to present their initial request. The board asked for clarifications of details, including safety precautions and other logistics. The event was officially approved at the Jan. 6 select board meeting.

“They gave us approval and we’re really grateful because that’s what we needed to start doing more,” Ms. Treitman said.

Both students are members of the high school swim team and the tennis team, and have personal connections to cancer.

“My grandmother died of cancer, and I have so many people in my family with cancer, and so does everyone in the community,” Ms. Thomson said. “Zoe and I do swim together and we’re tennis partners, so we’re very close. This is the perfect thing for us.”

The starting entry fee will be $50, which will increase as the date for the swim gets closer. Anyone can participate, and the goal is to raise at least $50,000 for cancer support.

Menemsha was chosen due to their up-Island connections. Ms. Thomson lives in West Tisbury and Ms. Treitman in Chilmark.

“I moved here later but I came in the summer all my life,” Ms. Treitman said. “And it’s less waves on the north shore, which is better.”

There will be three distances to choose from: 1/4 mile, 1/2 mile and 1 mile. All the swims will take place to the right of Menemsha Beach.

Ms. Thomson is no stranger to swimming fundraisers; her father, Josh Thomson, was part of a relay team that swam from Nantucket to Martha’s Vineyard this past summer, raising money for ALS.

Ms. Thomson’s mother Rebekah initially planted the seed for the summer swim fundraiser, reading in the news that Nantucket has been doing a similar type of swim for over a decade.

The two organizers will continue nailing down details with Swim Across America representatives — who will be on site in July to assist with logistics — and Island sponsors, as well as the Martha’s Vineyard Hospital. They have also been in contact with harbormaster Ryan Rossi and police chief Sean Slavin, they said.

The students are hoping to make the fundraiser an annual event.

“There’s so much fundraising potential on the Island, especially in summer, so we think it’s a perfect place to do one of these events,” Ms. Thomson said.

Ms. Thomson and Ms. Treitman said they are grateful for the help from various Island individuals, including swim coach Jen Passafiume, paramedic and boat captain Eamonn Solway, former Chilmark Chocolates owner Mary Beth Grady and oncology nurse Laura MacMillan.

“We’ve had so much help from so many people on the Island,” Ms. Thomson said.

Select board chair Marie Larsen voiced her support for the initiative.

“I think it’s commendable that these two young women want to do something like this, so I think we should do everything we can to support them,” she said at the meeting last month.

For more details, visit swimacrossamerica.org/site/TR?fr_id=8881&pg=entry.

This article appears in February 6, 2026.