Dragon Boat Festival coincides with Pao School's annual "Founder's Challenge" competition. This year, Pao School specially organized a Swim for Love competition in honor of the athletes from the Starwalker swim team and Rainbow Mama Workshop, organizations for children with autism. Pao School’s Senior Swimming Coach Johnson Wu said: “This event combines our sports culture with the school’s efforts to teach our students the importance of showing interest and care for their community. We hope to build awareness of autism in children and help them achieve their sports dreams!”
The competition was held on June 19 and saw over 300 participants from Pao School and the Starwalker swim team as well as 500 volunteers from Pao School and Rainbow Mama. The intense, eight-hour day of competition began at 9:00am. Our swimmers’ performances went beyond expectations, far exceeding the 100,000 meter goal. Swimmers from Primary Division also took part, contributing over 1000 meters to the total, while those from our Senior Secondary Division successfully completed an impressive 10,000 meters. Many parents were involved as well, cheering on their children and enjoying the competition.
Pao School students also played games and interacted with swimmers from the Starwalker team, young children who suffer from autism. A Pao School student said: “My father said to me that this event represents the true spirit and culture of Pao School: to be selfless and give back. It’s the right thing to do. What we got from this event was more than what we could have ever asked for. We will never forget this day.”
Each competitor also donated 200 RMB to go towards the construction of swimming facilities for autistic children. The event raised 55,300 RMB in total, which will be used to fund swimming lessons and future competitions for these children. However, it is public community events like this that benefit everyone. Like the words written on our swimming caps: “We swim to challenge the world.”
(From Johnson Wu, Senior Swimming Coach)
