11 Year-Old Darien Resident Shep Jennings is Making Waves to Fight Cancer

Darien, Connecticut, resident and fifth grader Shep Jennings, at only 11-year-old, is making big waves in the fight against cancer by swimming in the 19th annual Swim Across America–Fairfield County open-water swim on Saturday, June 21, which offers a half-mile, 1.5-mile and 3-mile open water swim courses, plus a fun Kids’ Splash for children under 11 years old. The event, which features hundreds of swimmers from throughout the tri-state area, supports critical cancer research for the swim’s local Stamford, Connecticut-based beneficiary, Alliance for Cancer Gene Therapy (ACGT). Swimmers, boaters, kayakers, paddle-boarders and land volunteers can register to participate at swimacrossamerica.org/fc.

Shep Jennings, who swims year-round with the Darien YMCA Piranhas and in summer with Shorehaven Golf Club, first dove into the charity swim event last year when his swim buddy Jedd Gallagher asked Shep to join the Blue Wave Swim Team, which was participating in the annual Swim Across America - Fairfield County open water swim. The Blue Wave Swim Team was coached by longtime Swim Across America supporter Marj Trifone. Last summer was the start of a fulfilling experience for Shep, who raised more than $2,000 for the nonprofit in 2024. Seeing his name on the leaderboard last year was inspiring to know he was making a difference.

“I love seeing my name climb the leaderboard, because every dollar means scientists get closer to cures,” said Shep.

Inspired by watching his parents raise money for ALS research after his grandmother was impacted by the disease, Shep already had the know-how of fundraising down. For Swim Across America, he began emailing friends and family and even going door-to-door in his neighborhood to collect pledges.

Shep, who will turn 12 in September and enter Middlesex Middle School in the fall, acknowledges his favorite summer sports are all about water: swimming, water polo and water-skiing on summer weekends, in the winter, he swaps liquid water for frozen water with snow-skiing. At home he shares the spotlight with his nine-year-old sister, Emmaline, and the family’s golden retriever, Rosie. With just a few weeks left until the big Swim Across America - Fairfield County open water swim on June 21, Shep isn’t easing up on his fundraising pace.

“I’m still reaching out,” he said. “I want my total and the funds for cancer-fighting research to keep growing.” To date, Shep is one of the top individual fundraisers already raising more than $8,000.

Swim Across America - Fairfield County supports its local beneficiary Alliance for Cancer Gene Therapy (ACGT), headquartered in Stamford, Connecticut, which is actually the site of the open water swim at Dolphin Cove in Stamford. Since 2007, Swim Across America - Fairfield County has granted more than $5.5 million to ACGT and supported the funding of 15 grants to ACGT research fellows, contributing to their mission to help develop cell and gene therapies that strengthen the immune system to fight cancer without impacting healthy tissue.

Originally founded in 1987, by Darien, Connecticut, resident Matt Vossler, Swim Across America has raised more than $100 million for cancer research since its founding in 1987 and has a strong track record of funding transformative research, including clinical trials that led to FDA-approved immunotherapy medicines Keytruda, Opdivo, Yervoy and Tecentriq. The organization was also a grant funder of Memorial Sloan Kettering's landmark clinical trial that achieved a 100% success rate treating advanced rectal cancer patients with dostarlimab; as well as a funder of the most recent Phase II clinical trial at MSK just published in The New England Journal of Medicine that showed an 80% success rate in treating patients with several types of MMRd cancers who were treated with immunotherapy and did not require surgery, radiation, or chemotherapy after six months of treatment with immunotherapy alone. Swim Across America awarded the grants for the early-stage research and continues to award grants for the ongoing clinical trial. Swim Across America also recently announced two first of its kind gene editing innovation grants, awarded to Alliance for Cancer Gene Therapy and Dana-Farber Cancer Institute that supports the work of novel gene and base editing techniques used in advanced cancer research, including targeted therapies, immunotherapies and cellular therapies, with the hope that these grants accelerate better, safer and more effective treatments.

To learn more about the June 21 Swim Across America - Fairfield County open water swim or to register to swim, volunteer, or to donate to the cause, you can visit swimacrossamerica.org/fc. To support Shep Jennings and his Darien YMCA Piranhas Team, click on Shep’s name on the online leaderboard.

About Swim Across America
Swim Across America hosts open water and pool swims in numerous communities nationwide, from Nantucket to under San Francisco's Golden Gate Bridge. More than 150 Olympians support the organization, including Michael Phelps, Kate Douglass, Missy Franklin and Ryan Lochte. The organization supports more than 60 cancer research projects annually and has ten named Swim Across America Labs at major institutions nationwide. To learn more, visit swimacrossamerica.org/fc, or follow on Facebook and Instagram @SAAFairfieldCo.