Matt Vossler and the Waves He’s Made to Cure Cancer
By PAMELA DEY VOSSLER
Editor’s Note: Yes, Matt is my husband. Had he not been, we would have covered him long ago for his contributions to the fight against cancer through Swim Across America (SAA), the national non-profit he co-founded. He’s been joined locally by nearly 700 swimmers in Darien who have participated in the Fairfield County SAA event at Cummings Point in Stamford since it kicked off in 2007. It’s a group that has included more than a decade of swimmers from the Darien High School (DHS) swim team, led by the now retired, legendary DHS Swim Coach Marj Trifone. Current DHS Swim Coach Erin Ritz will join the effort this year. So, nepotism aside, hats off to all of them and to a guy who shows just how far a crazy idea and a rather large dose of selflessness can go.
CRAZY. THAT’S WHAT THEY SAID about the first group of nine swimmers who crossed Long Island Sound from Port Jefferson to Fairfield Beach in 1987 to raise money for cancer research. A growing group of them did it again and again and again, despite losing a 28’ Sport Fish that first year (a casualty of rough seas and poor weight distribution). Then there were the years swimmers entered the water in the pre-dawn dark at Nantucket’s Dionis Beach for the first leg of a relay across Nantucket Sound to Cape Cod: 50 swimmers took turns in heats to cover those 33 miles.
There were swims down the Hudson River from Tarrytown, under the George Washington Bridge and on to Manhattan; swims around Boston Harbor, Navy Seals on their tail if they got too close to the protected perimeter of the liquid nitrogen gas facility located there; swims into shore from boats anchored three miles out from the Larchmont Yacht Club; and those that started with a 12’ jump off 200-foot vessels into San Francisco Bay beneath the Golden Gate Bridge.
The list goes on. Crazy can be contagious.
That first swim—the original Swim Across the Sound benefitting St. Vincent’s Medical Center cancer programs in Bridgeport—was the brainchild of longtime Darien resident Matt Vossler. It, and the three swims that followed, were prequels to what would become Swim Across America (SAA), the nonprofit organization Matt co-founded in 1992 with Jeff Keith, a lifelong friend and childhood cancer survivor who lost his right leg to osteosarcoma at 12 years old. With Jeff, Matt split from Swim Across the Sound, leaving behind the logo he designed for it and the hard work he led to build it in order to tackle the fight against cancer more broadly through SAA. (Swim Across the Sound continues to this day, unaffiliated with SAA. Jeff left SAA in 2005 to focus on cancer survivorship.)
Olympians Rowdy Gaines (front row far left), Steve Lundquist (front row, second in from right), and Craig Beardsley with Matt Vossler (back row, second and third in from right) Jeff Keith (back row, second from left) and fellow participants at the 1990 Swim event
SAA now encompasses 24 family-friendly open water swimming events and more than 100 pool swims nationwide supported by thousands of swimmers who raise more than $10 million annually for cancer research. Each swim has its own director and organizing committee and channels the funds they raise to cancer research efforts within their geography: the Baltimore Swim gives to Johns Hopkins; the Larchmont Swim supports the SAA Labs at Memorial Sloan Kettering (MSK) and Weil Cornell; the Fairfield County Swim gives to the Stamford-based Alliance for Cancer Gene Therapy (ACGT), to name just a few. It is local giving with global reach.
The scale of SAA is nearly unfathomable. The impact even more so.
To date, SAA has raised more than $120 million for cancer research. It is moving the dial on curing cancer with its high-risk, high-reward funding model. SAA gives young investigators at major cancer research centers the support they need to pursue ideas initially considered just this side of crazy, ideas that have turned out to be the source of some of the biggest breakthroughs in cancer care—treatments such as Yervoy, Opdivo, Keytruda and Tecentriq.
One of the 20,000 SAA volunteers annually who help make waves to fight cancer
Dr. Robyn Gartrell, currently at Johns Hopkins, was one such young investigator when, as a Columbia University Fellow, she had the first inkling that perhaps radiation could trigger the immune response kids fighting brain cancer desperately needed to shore up their battle against this deadly disease. It was an aha! moment that might never have happened without SAA seed funding for her first lab.
“I was just starting to get my feet wet in these ideas,” said Dr. Gartrell, now internationally-recognized for her work in radiation-initiated immune responses, as well as in Flash radiation treatments for pediatric brain cancer patients. “Without the money from Swim Across America I literally would not have had my lab at Columbia,” she explained. “I wouldn’t have been able to do that project that led to that aha! moment that then led to the rest of my career,” added Dr. Gartrell who has continued to receive SAA funding since that first award in 2016.
In the 1980s, MSK was seeking to expand its efforts in cancer immunotherapy. This now widely accepted standard approach to cancer treatment was then considered unconventional and speculative. “Swim Across America recognized the high risk/high reward nature of our efforts and quickly became the largest non-government organization to financially support our immunotherapy research,” said Dr. Jedd Wolchok, now head of the SAA lab at Weill Cornell and a leader in immunotherapy research. This led to breakthroughs that are saving lives, including the work of Dr. Andrea Cercek, principal investigator and gastrointestinal oncologist at MSK, who in a recent clinical trial showed unprecedented results using immunotherapy alone.
Swimmers make the leap to start the San Francisco Swim
Swimmers no longer start in the dark, jump off boats miles off shore or swim through major commercial thoroughfares. Safety is the main driver. But then, it always has been.
“What we didn’t know then, we know now,” said Matt, a lifelong boater with a deep knowledge of all things water who has been sweating swimmer safety since the very beginning. He’s worked with the best in the business to set courses and fine tune processes to land at the safety net that now surrounds each swimmer at every event.
Still that small frisson remains.
“I was petrified,” recalled retired Hall of Fame DHS girls’ swim team coach Marj Trifone of her first Fairfield County Swim. That was 2016 and she has done it every year since, driven by her mom’s cancer battle. (Swimmers like pools, lanes and seeing the bottom.) It was a fear that soon evaporated. “I could not believe how well run it was. This was even before we had the things on our ankles,” she added, referring to the trackers every swimmer now wears for added safety. A champion of the event, each year she brings large groups of swimmers from the DHS swim team and Middlesex Club where she continues to teach and coach in the summer. She also runs a pool swim there in further support of SAA.
Matt continues to take the lead in on-the-water ops at the Fairfield County Swim. In fact, there’s nothing he won’t do (and little he hasn’t done) to move SAA forward in its work to cure cancer, contributing thousands of volunteer hours over the years, balancing it with a demanding career in retained executive search. From hauling support boats through downtown Boston and NYC, inflating (and deflating) marks, explaining what he was doing in a small rubber boat beneath the Tappan Zee bridge shortly after 9/11 to six security guys pointing their guns at him, untangling anchor lines and watching the weather to make the go/no-go call about a given swim at 5am on event day, to helping fellow evangelists start events of their own, recruiting volunteers and swimmers, putting a paid national staff in place to support the growing web of SAA events and mentoring the new staff as it took root; starting a board of directors, leading that board of directors for nearly 20 years, resetting the board when it needed a different mix of volunteers and continuing to serve on it, currently as the co-chair of the governance committee…oh yes, and swimming in various events over the years—truly, he has touched every piece of SAA.
Matt, (far right front) with swimmers and volunteers at the SAA Naragansett Swim
“Not only is he the lynchpin of the (best) swim(!) at the best locale(!),” said John Sites, former Darien resident and longtime ACGT board member of Matt and the Fairfield County Swim which has donated millions to ACGT researchers, “his organizational skills and personal commitment to the effort are legendary.” ACGT-funded researchers include Dr. Carl June and his groundbreaking work on (CAR) T cell therapy which uses genetically-modified anti-cancer T cells to eliminate cancer cells.
“As our founder, Matt has been a cornerstone in the growth and success of Swim Across America,” said Ridgefield-native and Olympic swimmer Janel Jorgensen McArdle. She came to SAA as a swimmer in the 1990s, joined the Board of Directors then became SAA’s first executive director in 2005. She resigned in 2016 to focus on family, rejoined the Board then was brought back to the national staff as chief operating officer in 2022.
“Through his vision, leadership and tireless commitment, Matt has helped shape the organization into a nationally-recognized force in the fight against cancer. His ability to build strong partnerships, support event growth, and champion our mission has expanded our reach and deepened our impact,” Janel continued.
“Whether it’s behind the scenes or front and center at our events, Matt brings both strategy and heart, always putting the mission first. He lives and breathes Swim Across America. Swim Across America wouldn’t be what it is today without Matt!” she added.
Matt filling one of his many volunteer roles at the Fairfield County Swim
“With most non-profits, there has to be a constant presence and influence if it’s going to sustain itself. In SAA’s case, that is unquestionably Matt. His passion started the event and his foresight and hard work has sustained it for almost four decades,” said longtime Darien resident Bob Mazzone, Matt’s roommate in 1987 when he launched the Swim. Bob helped with that first swim and has continued to support the organization on the periphery in safety roles ever since.
“His vision, stubbornness and willingness to be wrong, learn and adjust have been instrumental in the growth of the organization,” added Bob, who has spent most of his career working for non-profits. “He has performed the hardest task for a founder: to get the organization to a point where you can hand off the reigns with full confidence in the future.”
Crazy to think all this started with a bunch of kids in their twenties – former college swimmers, triathletes, weekend warriors, athletes from other sports and a whole bunch of Olympians led by legends Rowdy Gaines, Craig Beardsley and Steve Lundquist. They were part of each other’s close and extended networks, people with a hankering to do something hard, something slightly outrageous, to tackle something even harder—a cure for cancer. If you didn’t know someone at the start of a swim, they were on your holiday card list by the end of it.
It’s a kind of bonding that continues, as signature to each event as water.
“It’s a heartfelt experience. It leaves you feeling proud, connected, and motivated to keep making a difference,” observed Isabel Blaze, DHS Class of 2018 and a four-year swimmer for Marj. She has participated in three Fairfield County Swim events. She is also the daughter of Darien’s Cliff Blaze, one of SAA’s earliest swimmers and a former member of the SAA Board of Directors. “You can feel the emotion and purpose driving everyone, from the swimmers and volunteers to the families cheering from the shore,” she added.
“What I loved most was how inclusive and inspiring the entire event felt. Everyone was welcome, no matter their background or swimming ability,” continued Isabel who even as an alum, plans to swim in the event again. “What’s also really cool is seeing the next generation step up. It shows how powerful the mission is, and how deeply it resonates across ages. There’s a real sense of legacy and momentum, and it’s exciting to be part of carrying that forward,” she added.
Shep Jennings
Darien’s Shep Jennings is a case in point: “I joined Swim Across America because I love swimming and I really want to help beat cancer,” said Shep, a fifth grader at Hindley School. He is a member of the Darien YMCA Piranha swim team and a second-year participant in the Fairfield County Swim. He is the captain of his own SAA team this year and has already raised more than $8,000.
“I really like helping,” he said.
More than 20,000 other volunteers who show up for SAA across the country each year would agree, as would the 150 Olympians who have participated in Swim events over the years, with not one ever receiving an appearance fee.
Progress doesn’t happen without help. Crazy needs accomplices.
“I think the beauty of what we’ve done is that we’ve been able to attract really good people, really good organizations, and we’ve been able retain a lot of people too,” observed Matt.
So what keeps him going, clocking those endless volunteer hours?
From left: Matt with retired DHS Swim Coach/current Middlesex Club Swim Coach Marj Trifone and current DHS Swim Coach Erin Ritz who will join Marj at the Fairfield County Swim this year | photo by Bambi Riegel
“It’s the paycheck,” said Matt laughing. “No, it’s the success that we have in the clinic,” he added more seriously. “We never knew that the early stuff would lead to where we are today. They were the building blocks for a lot of these cell and gene therapy programs that are saving lives—the immunotherapies, the (CAR) Ts,” said Matt, choking up, still, after all these years, at the enormity of what SAA has accomplished.
Craziest of all? What one humble, ferociously committed guy with an idea and the network to give it liftoff can do.
To learn more about Swim Across America, including volunteer and swimming opportunities at the Fairfield County Swim this June 21st as well as local pool swims, visit swimacrossamerica.org/fc
