Regina swimmers to swim Diefenbaker Lake to raise funds for Saskatchewan women’s shelters

Dionne Tatlow always loved to swim, whether it was at local pools or across lakes. And for the third straight year, she’ll be getting the opportunity to raise funds while doing what she loves.

For the third year in a row, a group of Regina swimmers will be swimming to raise funds for YWCA Regina and Saskatchewan women’s shelters. This year, six swimmers will be doing an approximately 163-kilometre marathon swim around Diefenbaker Lake in just three days.

“This is going to be the biggest one to date,” said Julia Dima, YWCA communications manager.

“These six women are swimming from one end of Diefenbaker Lake to the other. They’re calling it the 163 Swim — 163 kilometres, one lake, six incredible women, in three days.”

The swim is set to begin on July 19 at 5 a.m.

The women’s goal is to raise $10,000 in funds leading up to and during the three-day marathon. This year, the funds will be shared between YWCA Regina and the La Ronge Native Women’s Council’s Piwapan Women’s Centre in La Ronge.

The La Ronge Native Women’s Council operates a women’s shelter, a crisis line, second-stage housing and sexual and domestic violence support services.

1:44 YWCA Regina may be in line for additional funding from the City towards their Center for Women and Families

Donations made to The Diefenbaker Dip swim will benefit YWCA Regina’s annual fundraising campaign, #SayYES, which provides sustainable funding to YWCA Regina’s four key areas of service: YWCA Regina’s emergency shelters and supportive housing residence; children’s homes; community programming for women, youth and children; and outreach services in the community.

For Tatlow, who is a chiropractor in her day job, it’s the perfect opportunity to help a cause that’s important to her.

“I’m just so grateful that I have the ability to do this and people are interested and excited about the challenge. We get to support these great organizations and the more I learn about them, the more I realize the reach they have and the programming they do and the amount of people they help. To help them out with that is incredible.”

Tatlow said she’s been eyeing a swim across Diefenbaker Lake for quite some time, so when the opportunity came up, it was perfect.

“When I saw this I was really excited,” Tatlow said.

“The YWCA is such an amazing organization, they’re so supportive and they really bring awareness. The fact that we can do these sorts of challenges for ourselves and also help out women and children in need is amazing.”