Last Chance Fundraising for Hudson River Swim

Facebook is a good venue for some river-crossers-in-training to promote their fundraising for this weekend's . It's also the place where you can see the honest details behind the effort.

Tarrytown's Rob DeRocker, gearing up for Saturday's three-mile swim, said "A friend, wishing me the best...asked if I was worried about running into PCBs. I thanked her for the concern but said if I encountered PCBs — bottom dwellers they — it would be the least of my problems."

Then a friend asked DeRocker if he had gone into a "taper," that period before a big event in which you ease up on the training. "I said yes indeed," DeRocker wrote on his page, "without disclosing that it began before Jimmy Carter left the White House."

Though DeRocker may make light of his training, he's done a great job fundraising. Participants need to raise a minimum of $375 which he has well surpassed at $1,075 thus far.

Perhaps it's the bonus he's been offering to donors:

Any contributor gets a 35% discount off a one-week stay at our condo in St. Croix (www.saintcroixcondo.com) between now and the end of November.

Nice! But why go to St. Croix when Facebook friend Lauren Johnson said the Hudson River “water was a like a bathtub” the other day. "Fingers crossed," she wrote, that the good weather will hold up for Saturday. 

Last year's race was stuck with a shorebound route since the water was too treacherous to cross. 

DeRocker urges people to pass along his donation page link, or better yet, join him. "And if what you'd really like is to do the swim yourself, I can probably slip you in as a swimming buddy, tapered or otherwise."

Good luck to all!

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