April 3, 2009

By Matt Swiss
Staff Writer - www.gorhody.com

When the Rhode Island swimming and divers left for the 2009 ECAC Championships in Boston, Mass., the team had visions of winning a team championship. Instead, they accomplished much more than just a victory in the pool.

The swimmers, divers and their families stayed at the Quality Inn in Lexington, Massachusetts. During their stay, they came across a family that was down and out, with no place to live after their house had been destroyed by a fire.

The family lost their home on Wednesday, February 25th, and had been living at the hotel for a few days prior to meeting the Rhode Island swimmers and divers.

"One of our parents ran into them, got to talking, found out the story behind what happened and took it upon himself to make a contribution," said women's swimming and diving head coach Mick Westkott. "Then he came back to talk to us about the idea of all of us doing it and everybody embraced the idea."

The parent who Westkott was referring to was Jerry Zarek, the stepfather of Kyle Levesque, who is one of three captains on the men's club team.

For some, a great deal of advice is passed on between mother and son over the course of time. The most important thing that Zarek has learned from his mother was that for every bad thing that happens, something good will come out of it.

"They said they had no family and they apologized to me for smelling like smoke," Zarek said. "So I told Kathy [Levesque] that I'd like to get a little something together for them. What we did was just to let them know that some people cared about them."

Zarek went on to explain how he and the swimmers and divers decided to raise money, how they helped the struggling family and how the family reacted.

"It's nothing that's going to change their lifestyle but we raised one hundred and eighty-eight dollars," Zarek said. I asked the lady at the front desk to call them down and one of the sons came down. We just gave him an envelope and didn't tell them there was any money in it. Honest to God, he had a tear in his eye, he gave us a hug and it just kind of hit the core."

Although Westkott spent the majority of his time focusing on the meet itself, he could not help but notice the teamwork put forth in this community service project by both the men and the women's swimming and diving team.

Westkott noted a good deeds really put what's important in life into perspective.

Entering the final weekend of February, the most important thing for the Rhode Island swimming and diving team was to perform well at the ECAC Championships. However, shortly after the weekend began, the team took on a new challenge and, as Westkott put it, did all it could to get the suffering family back on track.

"The family was staying at the Inn because they had just been displaced from their home after the fire," Westkott said. "It didn't buy them a new house but it got them through the weekend and got them some meals. If all we did was help them to go out to dinner one night to make them feel whole again, it's still something."

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HEAD COACH: MICK WESTKOTT

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ASST. COACH: COLIN SHANNAHAN

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