 |
| Christopher Swain. (Members of the media: you may use this high-resolution image if you credit the photographer, "Carrie Branovan". |
|
Christopher Swain is not a rich man, not a scientist, and not that fast a swimmer.
But he is a Dad. And he wants his daughters to grow up in a healthier world.
Christopher grew up on the water. He won his first sailboat race at age 7, and taught his first sailing class at age 13. His father and grandfathers sailed and fished; his uncle is a tugboat captain.
Swain received his Bachelor of Arts degree in 1990 from Wesleyan University, in Middletown, Connecticut, where he completed a double major in Film Studies and French Literature. He earned his Master of Acupuncture degree from the New England School of Acupuncture, in Watertown, Massachusetts, in 1997. Upon graduation, he served as acupuncturist to the U.S. National Rowing Team.
In 1992, he founded the Children's Forestry Project (CFP), a non-profit organization which created opportunities for under-privileged youth to plant groves and forests of trees on damaged tracts of land in Colorado, Connecticut, and Massachusetts. The CFP's work was recognized by groups as diverse as the American Film Institute, and the Shatse Gaden Monks of Tibet.
In 1995, Christopher started The Human Rights Company (HRC) a non-profit organization dedicated to increasing the awareness and dissemination of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. In addition to offering guest lectures on Human Rights in local schools, the HRC produced two high-profile public events, Walk Equal, a Walk for Human Rights, a torch walk across Massachusetts for universal human rights, and the Connecticut River Swim for Human Rights, a 210 mile river swim in support of universal human rights. Both events drew praise from local governments, schools and human rights commissions throughout the Northeast.
On July 1, 2003, Swain became the first person in history to swim the entire 1,243 mile (2000km) length of the Columbia River, in the Pacific Northwest. The purpose of the Columbia River Swim was to raise awareness of the dislocated peoples and disrupted ecosystems of the Columbia River Basin. His swim is the subject of the critically-acclaimed documentary SOURCE TO SEA: the Columbia River Swim. In 2007, SOURCE TO SEA received the Environmental Activism and Social Justice Award at the EarthVision Film Festival, and the Most Inspiring Adventure Film Award at the Wild and Scenic Environmental Film Festival.
On July 28, 2004, Swain made history again, by completing a 315 mile swim of the Hudson River's entire length. The purpose of this swim was to put forward a new vision for the Hudson River: a river that would be drinkable to all the way to Troy, NY, and swimmable all the way to the Atlantic Ocean, every single day of the year. Swain's efforts on the Hudson are chronicled in the public television documentary, SWIM FOR THE RIVER, which was released nationwide in April of 2007.
In September 2004, Swain completed his Lake Champlain Swim For Clean Water, becoming the first person in history to swim the entire length of that 129 mile (208 km) international waterway. In Vermont, New York, and the Province of Quebec, he called for measures that would make Lake Champlain drinkable for future generations.
On November 12, 2004, Swain stroked into the Atlantic Ocean at Boston Harbor, completing an entire length swim of the Charles River designed to make swimmability the water quality standard on that waterway.
Swain's Lake Champlain, Hudson River, and Charles River swims were a series of clean water swims designed in part to bridge the gap between the United Nations International Water Year 2003, and the United Nations Decade of Action "Water For Life" 2005-2015.
In March 2005, at the invitation of United Nations staff, Swain designed, produced, and emceed a launch event for the United Nations Water Decade at U.N. Headquarters in New York City. The event, called BLESSING OF THE WATERS, brought together representatives from every major religion, and indigenous peoples from North America and beyond, to offer their prayers and blessings for the waters of the world.
Swain has survived collisions with boats, 12-foot waves, lightning storms, class IV+ rapids, toxic blue-green algae, Lamprey Eel attacks, and water contaminated with everything from human waste to nuclear waste.
Swain has made clean water education presentations to over 45,000 North American schoolchildren. Stories about his clean water swims have reached a worldwide media audience of more than two billion people. In 1991, Swain became the first
non-native man in history to complete the traditional Apache Run For
The Sun Initiation. In 2003, Swain received an International Earth Day
Award at the United Nations, and an E-chievement Award on National
Public Radio’s etown.
In 2004, he was elected to the Men's Journal Adventure Hall of Fame,
and chosen as Person of the Week on ABC World News Tonight with
Peter
Jennings. In 2007, Swain received the Harry E. Schlenz Public Education
Medal from the Water Environment Federation, and was featured in the International Swimming Hall of Fame book, Swimmers: Courage & Triumph. Swain splits his time between Massachusetts and Vermont. When the forty year-old is not leading the TOXTOURTM, he is likely to be found playing with his two young daughters.
|