By JACKIE HANUSEY
Staff Writer

EGG HARBOR TOWNSHIP – The swimmers will race this year, but in a different location.

The Rainbow Channel Challenge will be shifting course from Somers Point and Ocean City to Lakes Bay Saturday, Aug. 2.

The organized swim started on a dare more than 15 years ago posed to Polly Thieler of Egg Harbor Township.

“Someone said she couldn’t swim from Somers Point to Ocean City,” said Polly’s husband, George Thieler, who helped her organize the swim the last 15 years.

“She took them up on it and got the Coast Guard and the Marine Police (involved),” he said.

Realizing she needed to buy insurance, she was trying to defray the costs by inviting others to swim with her.

“She got more people than she thought,” he said.

For years the Thielers continued the swim as an annual event, donating extra money to Alzheimer’s organizations, as Polly’ father was battling the disease at the time.

In recent years money went to Shore Memorial Hospital.

Now it’s ready to change hands.

“We are swimmers; we didn’t have an organization behind us,” he said.

“We decided we had done it long enough,” he said.  “It’s an event that appeals to a large number of people.  We didn’t want to drop it completely.”

As the route from Somers Point to Ocean City had become busier with boat traffic, races were also becoming more dependent on the tides.

“The current will not be so important,” George Thieler said.  “The water in Pleasantville will be warmer and calmer.”

The Yacht Club of Pleasantville has stepped in to offer a new location and to raise money for the Field of Dreams in Absecon and the Donny Fund, which benefits catastrophically ill and/or challenged children in South Jersey.

The 16th annual event will be the first in Lakes Bay.

John Glassey, a member of the Yacht Club of Pleasantville who is organizing things leading up to Saturday, said the Thielers will still be helping out, volunteering the day of the race and easing the transition.

Spectators will be able to see competitors from just feet away from along the dunes in West Atlantic City.

More than 150 swimmers are expected to come and enjoy the swim.

Registration will begin at 8 a.m. and will close 30 minutes prior to each event.

The entry fee will be $20 for children up to age 14 in the quarter-mile swim starting at 9 a.m.

A two-mile kayak, paddle board and surf board event will begin at 9:45 a.m. which will be visible along the shores of the bay.  Entry fee for single paddlers is $25 and $35 for doubles.

A one-mile swim and two-mile swim will run concurrently at 10 a.m. for swimmers of varying ages; the entry fee is $30 for each.

“You will be able to see the entire race from the yacht club,” Glassey said.

Views will also be accessible from along Bay Drive, with the two-mile race extending just past the Hampton Inn in West Atlantic City.

Volunteers will be in the water as a safety precaution.

Wetsuits are allowed, but those using them will be given a delayed start in the one- and two-mile races.

The event will go on rain or shine as long as there is not thunderstorm activity.

For more information call John Glassey at (609) 641-8666.