Makes Waves for Winni nets $10K for lake conservation

GILFORD — Alexis Wallace donned her swim cap, adorned with a customized Lake Winnipesaukee Association logo, slipped into fins and walked slowly backward into the big lake on a temperate and foggy morning. She’s a regular recreational swimmer, but that morning, Wallace was swimming with a purpose.

The Wolfeboro resident, passionate about spreading a conservationist message regarding the health of Lake Winnipesaukee, completed a 5-mile swim around Governor's Island on Tuesday morning. Wallace, who’s raised funds over years past through swim events for LWA, completed a 0.5-mile stretch. There were 10 swimmers, two at a time, who finished the effort in just under three hours.

"The wind is the big factor," Wallace said before she began. "We don't mind the rain because we're wet."

The swimmers met Tuesday at the clubhouse on Governor's Island and began their swim at 7:18 a.m., finishing back where they started at 10 a.m. The group raised $10,000 by Monday this week for the Make Waves for Winni swimathon, said Deb Macone of Gilford, who spearheaded the fundraising effort. 

Flanked on either side by safety observers in a kayak and on a jet ski, the swimmers clamored aboard a large pontoon boat as Wallace herself kicked off the relay. She said the water was warm and conditions were perfect — spectators cheered her and the other swimmers on as they watched the relay unfold from their docks.

“I was ecstatic about how it went,” Wallace said after her swim. “The weather gods were with us today.”

Water temperatures were around 73 degrees Tuesday morning, according to a record kept at Winni Marine.

Wallace reminisced about her first round of the swimathon, when she swam about 2 miles along the waters of Wolfeboro and raised roughly $200 to support LWA, noting her excitement about the event's growth and proven success.

“That first swim, it was just me challenging myself to swim further distances,” she said. 

The conditions were perfect for this year’s iteration of the fundraiser, she said, and hopes the people of the Lakes Region will keep in mind that they’re alive for just a small portion of the lifetime of the lake, and should work to preserve it for future generations.

“We couldn’t have asked for better circumstances,” she said. 

In the future, Wallace said she’d like to bring the swimathon to Laconia — potentially next year.

The proceeds from the swimathon this year surpassed fundraising efforts in the past. Money raised will support water quality testing efforts by LWA, led by President Pat Tarpey. 

The LWA received a grant from the federal Environmental Protection Agency to fund water quality testing initiatives earlier this year. That grant, worth $650,000, is contingent on the community itself raising $163,000 in further support. It was the nonprofit environmental groups’ largest award to date.

The timing of the fundraising effort was appropriate — throughout the summer, state and local conservationists warned the public cyanobacteria blooms were recorded across the entirety of Lake Winnipesaukee. Environmental and behavioral factors influence the blooms, such as nutrient runoff from lawns and drainage areas after rainfall among numerous other causes. 

The New Hampshire Department of Environmental Services issued cyanobacteria warnings for areas of the lake around Wolfeboro on Aug. 19 and Tuftonboro on Aug. 20. Another warning for the Lake Wentworth area of Wolfeboro was issued on Aug. 26.