​Every June the Variety Club of Barbados hosts their annual “Row for Charity” in the tranquil Carlisle Bay on the south east coast of the island. It’s a tremendous effort by the local charity with over 30 kayak teams made up of 12 members each competing in team relays.  In 2018 the Variety Club incorporated an open water swimming event into the schedule and this past weekend the Swim event attracted over 100 swimmers who participated in a relay race on four member teams. The weather wasn’t fully cooperative with intermittent rain showers during the day but this did nothing to dampen the spirits of competitors especially the numerous junior swimmers who supported the swim race.
 
The Guest of Honor at the event was Cameron Bellamy, who created history when he swam around the island last November. Cameron is currently in Barbados training towards his planned Cuba to Florida swim attempt in September. Cameron formed an association with Variety Club during his many visits ahead of the Swim Around Barbados and his charity: Ubunye Challenge donated funds to the Variety Club in the end of 2018. On the weekend young swimmers were thrilled with his presence as he started the swim race, then jumped in a kayak to monitor the swimmers on the course and handed out prizes to the winning teams. Much to the delight of spectators he then joined the “Coral Crew” kayak team comprised of several open water swimmers and contributed to their third place position with an epic finish. 

Of course, its also exceeding difficult in a small island to raise funds for charity so this makes their dedication and contribution to the local community even more impressive. Variety the Children’s Charity in Barbados is one of more than 50 ‘tents’ throughout the world, including Australia, France, Israel, USA, United Kingdom, New Zealand and South Africa.  The Barbados branch was registered in 1984 but worldwide the he Charity has been active for 80 years. The goal of the charity is to raise funds for sick, disadvantaged and disabled children in Barbados and the Eastern Caribbean. Learn more about the amazing work done by the Variety Club in Barbados and how you can help here: www.varietybarbados.org

​Its with great pleasure that the Barbados Open Water Festival announces that Jaimie Monahan, renowned ultra-marathon and ice swimmer will attend the 8th Festival in November 2019.  The New Yorker is globally known as a Queen of Cold Water swimming but can't wait to get a swim in the warmer waters of Barbados: "I keep looking at photos of the water there and am getting way too excited - its still 5 months away!"

Jaimie’s endless list of outstanding achievements includes: first to accomplish the Ice Sevens, numerous marathon swims including a 92K double Manhattan island swim, six marathon swims on six continents in sixteen days, winner of the inaugural International Winter Swimming Association’s World Cup and seven time US National Winter Swimming champ. Jaimie, who has attended at least seventy-five major events over the past fifteen years is known for “pioneering new swim routes” and “setting course records in some of the world’s most beautiful and iconic locations”.