Piper Stewart was gasping for air and shaking at the knees when she clambered out of the pool on Sunday afternoon.
Subscribe now for unlimited access.
$0/
(min cost $0)
or signup to continue reading
Over three gruelling hours the 13-year-old managed to swim 384 laps and 9.6 kilometres, which was the greatest distance she'd covered in her life.
"I can barely stand up," she said, exhaustedly.
But the sore muscles were all worth it for Piper, who held Sunday's NAIDOC swimathon to raise money for Aboriginal kids' swimming lessons.
The fundraiser drew in swimmers and sponsors from all around the community, and together they smashed their initial $2000 goal and raised about $4000.
The money will go towards Bambigi, a charity Piper started when she was only 12 years old.
It started back in 2018, when she looked around and noticed there were no other Aboriginal kids in her swim school.
When she asked her mum why that was the case it sparked a tough conversation about Aboriginal economic disadvantage, so she started Bambigi to help Aboriginal families who couldn't afford to send their children to swim school.
"Indigenous kids are over four times more likely to drown, so I wanted to come up with a way to minimise that number," she said.
What started as a tiny class with four students has ballooned into a major program that has so far taken in over 80 Aboriginal students from around the region.
With the additional $4000 raised from their swimathon they'll be able to take on another 50 or so Aboriginal children for six months.
READ MORE
The winner of the swimathon was team Blackline, which collectively managed to swim 101 laps in 30 minutes.
It was a whole lot of hard work and training paying off for 10-year-old team captain Lane Stewart, who always looks forward to his swimming lessons.
"It's fun and active and most of my friends do it," Lane said.
Some of the Bambigi sponsored kids will go to Griffith Regional Aquatic Leisure Centre and the others will be taught at Blackline.
Blackline owner Deb Della Franca said it was a joy to watch the Bambigi kids, the vast majority of whom had never swum before in their lives.
"It's really satisfying to watch the kids improve," Mrs Della Franca said. "They love the water and it's important for them to learn to swim, especially with the channels, rivers, and dams around Griffith."
The swimathon may be over, but Piper is far from finished. She's held all sorts of events for Bambigi, and she'll be racking her brains to come up with a fundraiser for 2020 that will make an even bigger splash.
***
While you're with us, did you know that you can now receive updates straight to your inbox every Monday at 6am from The Area News? To make sure you're up to date with all the Griffith and MIA news you can sign up here
Kenji Sato
Kenji Sato is a handsome journalist at The Daily Advertiser who enjoys writing flattering bios about himself in the third person. He can be contacted by email at kenji.sato@dailyadvertiser.com.au or by mobile on 0448 927 612.
Kenji Sato is a handsome journalist at The Daily Advertiser who enjoys writing flattering bios about himself in the third person. He can be contacted by email at kenji.sato@dailyadvertiser.com.au or by mobile on 0448 927 612.
