Service is easy when everyone’s watching. But on quiet Sunday afternoons, without much of the campus community knowing, the Le Moyne College swimming and diving team carries on a “Swimming with the Advocates” program, something team members have been doing for over 10 years.
Advocates is a program that was started as a resource for education and family support for individuals with intellectual and developmental disabilities. Advocates work to empower “individuals and their families to lead meaningful and inclusive lives in our communities.”
Dan Beecher and his son Tom, 31, have been with Advocates since September 1995. When it comes to the support and services Advocates provides for families, Beecher says, “They are absolutely the best.” The most important thing, he says, is that they listen to Tom. The program is able to provide mentors for individuals with disabilities, which means that Tom is with someone from the program Monday through Friday from 9:00 a.m. to 3:30 p.m.
Beecher talked about the flexibility of the program and how it is made to work around Tom and what his goals are, meeting every month or so to discuss how he is doing. Tom has been coming to swim at Le Moyne with Advocates since the partnership started over ten years ago.
“It means so much to Tom,” Beecher says, and shared that his son’s two favorite things are swimming with the Le Moyne Dolphins and Challengers baseball.
But the partnership doesn’t just matter to Tom; it matters to the men and women of the swimming and diving team. When asked about her time with Advocates, junior Emma Winters says it’s something she holds very close to her heart. Winters has family members with intellectual disabilities that she knows often struggle in social situations. She said she loves that Advocates allows people to feel included and have fun meeting a new community of people they otherwise wouldn’t normally experience.
“I love doing it,” Winters says.
Working with the Advocates program is something that head coach Adam Zaczkowski took over doing when former head coach Joseph Hannah retired. Why has Zaczkowski made sure the partnership has continued? Water is the great equalizer, he says. And he says connecting with people through aquatics, as swimmers, is just what we do.
