Islamorada Swim Across America Event Aims to Raise $100,000 for Cancer Research

What started as a small group of friends training together in Florida Bay has grown into one of Islamorada's most purposeful athletic events. On April 18, Swim Across America–Florida Keys will bring open-water swimmers to Founders Park Beach, with every dollar raised directed to cancer research, prevention and treatment.

Co-directors Glenn and Susan Latham have been building toward the date since December, coordinating roughly 50 volunteers and recruiting participants for the swim course that follows Florida Bay near Founders Park's jetty. The local goal is $100,000, and organizers say 100 percent of funds go straight to cancer research.

The Florida Keys chapter is part of Swim Across America, a national nonprofit that has raised more than $150 million since its founding in 1987. The Keys event has drawn participants well beyond the recreational level over the years, including Olympic medalists who have competed on the same bay course that Islamorada swimmers train on year-round. The setting is part of the draw: open water, the wide sky over Florida Bay, and, on lucky days, dolphins sharing the course with competitors.

Susan Latham credits the event's origins to something modest. That informal circle of friends who began logging miles near the Founders Park jetty eventually built the organizational foundation for a full Swim Across America chapter, tying a local swimming culture to a national research pipeline.

The April 18 event is structured to welcome swimmers of all abilities, with the volunteer team managing logistics and safety throughout the day. Founders Park Beach, a well-known waterfront anchor in Islamorada, hosts a course familiar to anyone who has swum in the bay.

Reaching the $100,000 target would represent a significant local investment in a national mission now in its fourth decade.