Swimmers Lena Smith ’16 and Anna Duke ’15 have reintroduced the fundraiser relay to the Wooster community
Sarah Carracher
News Editor
After taking two years off from the event, the College of Wooster swim team will again host an Hour of Power Relay thanks to swimmers Lena Smith ’16 and Anna Duke ’15.
The Hour of Power Relay began after the death of 22-year-old Ted Mullin, a student and swimmer at Carleton College, due to sarcoma in 2006. The Hour of Power Relay was begun by Mullin’s parents to raise money for the Ted Mullin Fund for pediatric sarcoma research at the University of Chicago.
“Ted Mullin is from my high school, and I grew up doing the Hour of Power all the time,” Smith said. “I wasn’t specifically coached by him, but I knew him as a coach because he was a coach at my swim club.”
“We did the Hour of Power with my high school team every year,” she continued. New Trier High School, where Mullin and Smith both graduated, is only one Chicago-area school that participates in the Hour of Power. Mullin was a volunteer summer swim coach at Old Willow Swim Club in Glenview, Ill., for eight years and coached at other swim clubs in other Chicago-area towns.
The Hour of Power is a noncompetitive, untimed relay swimming event. “It’s a continuous relay so there’s no end … nobody really wins,” Smith said.
The event is not limited to competitive swimmers: anyone can participate. “One of my best friends when I was little, her mom had cancer, and she swam it with us,” Duke said.
“It’s very interesting to go into our two towns when this is going on because it’s very visible in the community and you can feel the presence,” Duke said. “My little sister goes to Carleton College, and it’s a big deal there,” she continued, noting that the Hour of Power began at Carleton. It has since spread to a large group of Division III colleges and universities. “It’s cool how we’re kind of linked and I have a lot of friends from high school and we all do the Hour of Power.”
Mullin’s attitude toward swimming left a profound effect on those who knew him.
“He was one of those really cool, hardworking guys, who every time he practiced, you know that was all he had,” Smith said. “His legacy was that when he swam, he left it all in the pool…and he gave it all he had. Before we go, we say ‘leave it in the pool.’ Give it all you’ve got.”
As the Hour of Power Relay, which previously took place at Wooster until its main planner graduated, gets back on its feet, Smith and Duke hope to do more on the fundraising front in the future. The swim team all bought “Cancer Sucks” caps for the event.
“I’m just glad that I could bring something back that was kind of lost,” Smith said. “The message is universal.”
The event will take place in the Scot Center on Nov. 12 at 10 p.m.