An Irondequoit man plans to swim the length of Canandaigua Lake Saturday to raise awareness about the plight of refugees and to raise money for those who are resettling in the U.S. and specifically Rochester.
"It's just something I think people need to be aware of, because it's a crisis that's really not getting better," said 27-year old Ricky Henahan. "So I felt compelled to say something and then try to do something about it."
Henahan is a champion swimmer who competed in the U.S. Olympic trials twice and was a 12-time Division 1 All American at the University of Tennessee.
It was during his college years that Henahan became aware of the refugee crisis and first met a refugee family from Palestine that he interviewed for one of his courses.
"A lot of people who are saying negative things about refugees are intimidated by or scared of them,” he said. “A lot of them never really met a refugee, so I'm convinced if you ever got a chance to meet one of them, it would totally change your perspective."
Henahan hopes to complete his 15 mile swim in 7-and-a-half hours. He's expecting to finish at Kershaw Park between 12:30 p.m. and 1:00 p.m. Saturday. He will start at the south end of the lake near the Woodville Boat Launch on Route 21 at 5:30 a.m.
The donations made on Henahan's pledge page will directly support The World Wide Tribe, a UK-based non-profit that works with refugees. Henahan said he has enough pledges from friends and family members to donate up to $10,000 in matching funds to Mary’s Place, a non-profit refugee outreach center in Rochester.