It is 7:00 a.m.

The beach pulses with anticipation. The drone of motorboats makes its way to the shore and the sun is already hot. Volunteers hurriedly set up tents, food, drink and even a massage table.  The first wave of swimmers just departed Davy’s Locker restaurant in New Bedford and will soon be visible from the shore at Fort Phoenix in Fairhaven.

The 18^th Annual Buzzards Bay Swim has begun with 216 swimmers in three waves making their way from New Bedford to Fairhaven, a 1.2 mile swim.

Amongst the 216 are the four members of the Quaker Team.  Made up of Alan Harris, his wife Jessica Harris and John Rider of the Mattapoisett Friends Meeting along with Amy Howland of the Swift Neck Friends Meeting in South Dartmouth.

Alan Harris finishes the swim looking exhausted.  “Ironically I was a distance swimmer in college,” he says.

“How’d you do?” asks Brad Hathaway a member of the Mattapoisett Friends Meeting and fundraiser for the team.

“I got here,” Harris responds with a laugh.  “I wish I had trained this year.  This year I got here.”

It is after 8:00 a.m. and the waves of swimmers are crashing onto the shoreline now.  216 exhausted but exhilarated bodies.

Harris and the rest of the team find each other on the beach.  Shortly before the first swimmer came in it was announced that the Quaker Team was the highest fundraiser for the third straight year, this year raising $3,000 with the swim itself raising a total of $88,000.

“No church, as far as we know, has fielded a team before,” says Hathaway.  “This year, I decided that if they’re going to swim as a team, well, we’re such a small meeting that we’d need to find help with fundraising.”

“Brad really took up the gauntlet this year,” said Jessica Harris.

By forming the team, the Quakers set out to provide an example to other churches about involvement and stewardship.

“The original idea was to get more churches involved since we thought encouraging stewardship amongst churches was a worthy goal,” said Jessica.

With a solid number of former Buzzards Bay Swim participants in the meeting already, a team for the event was formed.

“We had all competed as individuals in the past,” says Alan.  “This is our third swim as a team though.”

“We got help from everybody,” says Hathaway.  “Quakers from Falmouth to Boston to Westport and a lot of support from non-Quakers too.”