Sports

Palisadian Seeks Sponsors for Benefit Swim

Drew Daniele will take to the water in Hawaii in September to raise money for disabled athletes seeking to overcome their injuries and return to their sports.

When Pacific Palisades resident Drew Daniele jumps in the water for a morning swim, his only obstacles are aches, pains and a few missing gears as a result of middle age. However, for the 46-year-old insurance executive, former lifeguard and father of two, the sore muscles are all in an effort to help athletes who face much greater challenges.

Daniele is raising money for the Swim With Mike Physically Challenged Athletes Scholarship Fund, a national organization named for Mike Nyeholt, a former USC swimming All-American who was left paralyzed by a motorcycle accident.

Swim With Mike has raised $10.6 million since its inception in 1981. The money helps disabled athletes like Nyeholt return to their sports.

Daniele, who lives in the Palisades with wife, Diana, and son Drew Jr., 11, and daughter Dayna, 4, works at Assurant Employee Benefits in Los Angeles. He sells products and programs that help disabled individuals get back to work, a career he says has been very generous to him. So, when he passed a billboard promoting a Swim With Mike event in April, Daniele saw an opportunity to both give back to the community and revisit his passion for swimming.

Daniele has been getting up at 5:30 a.m. every day to train—recalling the days when he did the same for the Germantown Academy Aquatic Club and later for the College of William & Mary (Class of 1987).

Daniele is seeking sponsors as a representative of Swim With Mike in the Waikiki Roughwater Swim, a 2.4-mile open-water event in Hawaii in September.

This article first appeared on Ocean City, NJ, Patch.

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