Wareham residents to swim for family and a love of the bay

Six Wareham residents are hopping in the water in the name of environmental conservation and to swim from New Bedford to Fairhaven in the Buzzards Bay Swim.

The 1.2 open mile swim takes participants past the Butler Flats Lighthouse and the New Bedford Hurricane Barrier. The swim raises money to help support the Buzzards Bay Coalition improve the health of the bay.

Wareham resident Peter Gold is participating in his third swim this year. Each year Gold said he swims in honor of his late father and this year, he is swimming for his late step-mother too.

“I got the love of the water and the joy of swimming from my dad and when he passed away, I decided I would swim in his memory to raise money for the Buzzards Bay Coalition,” Gold said. “My stepmom passed away a couple of months ago and she always sponsored me so I decided this year I’d swim for her.”

Gold said he never remembers learning to swim because his dad got him in the water as soon as he could.

“He used to drop pennies in the pool when we were little and tell us to go get them,” he said.

His love of the water also came from summers spent in Falmouth, Gold said, and supporting the coalition in keeping the bay healthy is also important to him.

“I used to collect all the sand dollars and seashells and a lot of that is gone,” he said. “The waters aren’t as clean and they’re not as alive as they used to be.”

Another Wareham resident participating is Wareham Free Library Reference and Outreach Services Director Melissa Dyer. This year will be Dyer’s 11th time participating in the swim and while she is a lifelong swimmer and former triathlete, supporting the coalition’s mission of protecting Buzzards Bay is what makes her coming back each year.

“You have to figure with 58 miles of coastline in Wareham alone that water’s important to our community,” she said.

Dyer said she moved to the South Coast as a middle schooler but spent nearly 30 years in Colorado after finishing college before returning to Wareham in 2012 to be near family. Upon returning, she said the poor condition of the water surprised her and she knew she wanted to get involved.

“Seeing the steps that were being taken by the coalition in order to try and ameliorate all the problems that have been happening as well as trying to conserve land and spaces that were otherwise being neglected or not used for a good purpose and making them available to the community was great,” she said.

Over the years, she said a number of people have tried the swim to do something different and end up getting hooked by the cause and the camaraderie.

“The people who do the swim are really a tight knit group but they’re more than happy to allow more people in and say ‘hey come join us,’” she said.

Seeing new people join the swim and get hooked has been some of her favorite parts about competing, she said.

“I think my favorite moment each year is watching somebody new try it for the first time, get hooked and feel that confidence that they made it from one end to the other,” she said.

The six Wareham residents competing in this year's swim are Melissa Dyer, Lauren Severence, Peter Gold, David Patnaude, Samantha Smith and Dhara Sananikone-Evans.