LOCALadk Magazine

1 MASTER'S DEGREE PROGRAM 20 BACHELOR'S DEGREE PROGRAMS 5 ASSOCIATE DEGREE PROGRAMS 2 5 + VARSITY ATHLETIC TEAMS ELEVATE YOUR EDUCATION #smittpix @pulsmiths pulsmithscoll pulsmiths.du LEARN MORE AT: Lk Gor Srnc Lk Lk Plcid Plttsburh LOCALadk 37 swim near Point Judith, Rhode Island. Her heroes include Lynne Cox and Jaimie Monahan, and she considers the open-water and ultramarathon swimming communities very welcoming to all. With long-distance swims in Maryland, Massachusetts, and St. Croix on her resume, Simpson generously offers help through her swimming to causes like Hannah's Hope Fund, which raises money for the treatment of giant axonal neuropathy (GAN). She has also raised funds for the March of Dimes and AIDS organizations, and in 2017, while preparing for her Lake George solo, an article about her appeared in e Sun Community News. One of the people who read it was Louise Rourke, who wondered if there was a way for the two of them to meet. "I am a four-year-old blonde little girl standing on our dock in Sandy Bay on Lake George . . . trying to catch sight of the woman everyone is talking about: Diane Struble," recalls Rourke of that day in 1958. "When I heard that she had coated herself in grease to stay warm, I thought of the white zinc oxide that my parents applied to my shriveled right leg." Stricken with the polio virus as a baby, Rourke endured years of surgeries, therapies, braces, and hurtful taunts. Heeding the advice of doctors, her family had her spend as much time as possible in the water. "e best thing about swimming is that I'm free in the water: free of my brace, free from preconceived notions that people harbor about folks with differing abilities, and free to still or focus my mind as I swim," she says. A trip to Nepal in 2009 allowed her to see the plight of polio victims there. "ey were crawling with shriveled limbs, sometimes wearing sandals on their hands to walk," she recalled, and decided that one day she would 'make a difference.' Partnering with Simpson, she trained for months to swim the length as a relay to raise funds for Rotary International's efforts to eradicate polio and, with a 2-1 match by the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, she brought in over $120,000. Writing in her book, Called by the Water: e Swim to End Polio, she says, "My father's prediction had come true. I had found many ways to live a purposeful life despite growing up with polio, or more likely because of it." Louise and Bridget swam the last quarter mile together, finishing triumphant at Diane's Rock. "Aer hours of training in the icy lake waters, she [Diane] would come home to the trailer, cook dinner for herself and her daughters over an open fire, then read them bedtime stories by the light of a kerosene lamp. Because there was no room inside the trailer . . . Diane slept outdoors, even when it rained, in a sleeping bag on the ground." (New York Mirror Magazine, 9-28-58) e story of women and swimming in the Adirondacks is one of fierce determination and immeasurable strength, of daring to dream and risk-taking, and of choosing one's own path and carving out a place in history. Inspired by the force of nature that was Diane Struble, in a place of incredible natural beauty that is Lake George, each has le her mark on our minds and in our hearts. For that we are grateful, and also challenged to ask ourselves "What are we capable of if we too let go of fear?"

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