Swim-A-Thon Fundraiser

Fifth Annual Swim-A-Thon: July 21, 2026

VHCHE partners with Orange Hunt Swim Team on its mission to improve the lives of children in underserved and underprivileged communities locally and globally.

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Viridiane’s Hope, in partnership with the Orange Hunt Swim Team located in West Springfield, VA is hosting its Fifth Annual Swim A Thon Fundraiser at Orange Hunt Swim and Tennis Club on Tuesday July 21, 2025, from 7:00am – 11:00am. The event is open to swimmers, parents, and volunteers of all ages, from mini sharks to master swimmers with the purpose of raising funds to help provide drinking water to children and families in rural underserved and underprivileges villages of Cameroon, as well as supporting education initiatives in Cameroon. This competition provides swimmers a great opportunity to challenge themselves and increase their personal best, and parents who participate with their children can use this event as an opportunity to empower their children, create a family bond, and encourage them to do selfless acts for others while improving their skills. The funds raised for this year’s swim-a-thon will be used to drill a drinking water well in the rural villages of Kakai and Kalak in the Far North region of Cameroon where communities face a paradoxical water crisis, battling both severe water scarcity and devastating flooding driven by poor infrastructure.

In 2025, we raised about $17K and were able to fund an entire well powered by solar energy to provide drinking water to 1,500 inhabitants of the village of Mbeme in the southwest anglophone region of Cameroon! The well is supported by a submersible pump, a covered storage tower, a 3,000-gallon storage tank, and several distribution points with multiple faucets, significantly alleviating the burden of children walking miles in some instances to fetch water from the nearest spring for their family. Over one hundred swimmers and volunteer support the Swim-A-Thon every year, with swimmers collectively swimming about 10,000 laps (over 150 miles) annually. Several mini-sharks swimmers also compete in the Swim-A-Thon.

This fundraising event scores a participation of over 100 individual donors annually!

This summer we are continuing to expand our efforts to include youth in the planning, delivery, and follow-up and inviting any interested rising Middle School and High School Students from Orange Hunt Pool to join our Youth Advisory Council for the Swim-A-Thon. This will be a great chance to learn how nonprofits organize events, earn service learning/volunteer hours, be part of the action, and have a lot of fun.

Ways to support

• Sponsor a swimmer for any amount, for any number of laps swam, anywhere from 1 lap to 66 laps.
• Match contributions up to a certain amount for sponsorship made for swimmers. 
• Donate any amount to support the cause. 
• Fund a drinking water well for $20K. These wells are powered by electricity or solar energy, with a 1,000 – 3,000-gallon reserve tank and two to three distribution systems with four faucets each and serve a population of about 2,000 to 5,000 people. 
• Donate for the construction of the school.

VHCHE also plans to build an English speaking 1-6 grade school with a clinic and computer literacy center in the diocese of Nkongsamba, at Saint Anne Catholic School in New Melong. This village is located on the border province between the Francophone and Anglophone sections of Cameroon which is receiving many English-speaking families who are fleeing the war and have no local infrastructure to accommodate their learning curriculum in English. VHCHE has successfully carried out infrastructure projects that are sustainable in the area. 

Viridiane’s Hope is a Virginia 501(c)(3) nonprofit and a Catholic Charity of the Arlington Diocese, OCD #456048. VHCHE’s mission of bringing joy to other children was born out of sorrow, and the help VHCHE is providing to children in need was built out of desperation; it’s a nonprofit organization that was founded by grieving parents to celebrate and remember their daughter through health and education programs that support its mission. VHCHE relies on the support of general donors and benefactors to accomplish this mission.

Photos and videos of the Swim A Thon are available at https://www.facebook.com/viridianeshope.vhche/.

You can make a tax deductible donation in support of the cause.

More information about the swim-a-thon can be found here.