In October, the swim and dive team sold ‘Pink Out the Pool’ shirts as a fundraiser for Mansfield Cares. Last Friday, they finally got together and gave the $500 check to Mansfield Cares board member Lisa Stewart.

“Our swim and dive team had never done anything like this before,” swim parent Erica Stewart said. “Anytime they ever raised money it was for booster money for their team, but they had never done anything for their community before. So I thought this was a good opportunity for them to do some good.”

The swim team’s goal was to sell 100 shirts, and donate $5 from each shirt. They were able to successfully meet their goal, with many swimmers going above and beyond in how many shirts they were able to sell.

“I sold the most number of shirts on the team,” sophomore Zachary Crook said. “I just thought it was a really cool thing that we were doing, so I wanted to do my part.”

The swim team decided to donate to Mansfield Cares because it is their favorite local charity. Mansfield Cares is a local organization that funds many programs throughout the city. They built a free clinic, established a food warehouse that services 11 or 12 food pantries in the area, and helped fund many social programs, such as Angel Tree, Common Ground, Feed the Kids for Summer, Backpacks for Kids, etc. Mansfield Cares nineteenth Charity Ball is on Feb. 17, where they raise the majority of their funds for their budget—over $150,000 annually.

“I love it when the kids get involved,” Lisa Stewart said. “When the kids do something, it just means more. It means more to them, it means more to us, and it shows other people that they should be doing what these kids are doing.”

Next year, the swim team is said it hopes to expand their shirt sales to the other MISD swim teams to raise more money. Because none of the high schools’ school colors are pink, they want to make this a unifying fundraising tradition.

“Our kids swim a lot, and they don’t have much time to do much more, and I think that it’s important that they learn to take care of their community,” Erica Stewart said. “So even though their days are full, I want them to have pride in their community and civil service.”