Synchronized swimming gives girls a chance to live a dream, to perform for crowds, to be athletic and form bonds.
It’s also a chance to have a lot of fun, which is exactly what roughly 30 girls did at the Yacht Club on Friday night.
“I like to play with my friends and swim and have fun,” said Sara Campos, 10, “I want to do it for as long as I can.”
Campos has been synchronized swimming for four years, and her mother Emma said they will definitely be back for a fifth year.
She said Sara gets a chance to learn teamwork, to exercise, and continue to have a great time.
“It makes the summer for us, it’s become a tradition,” Emma said.
Sara was one of more than 30 girls who took part in the annual synchronized swimming show at the Yacht Club.
Now in its 31st year, the opportunity to synchronize swim has been carried through several generations of young ladies, many of whom have come back to teach younger students themselves.
Rebecca Shea, 16, is one of those girls.
A North Fort Myers student, Shea has been synchronize swimming for since years.
She doesn’t know how long she’ll keep it up, but hopes to one day teach other girls who are coming up in the sport.
She also hopes to change the perception of synchronized swimming, by letting people know it’s more than just an elderly exercise at the pool.
She said synchronized swimming is a way of performing that just so happens to be underwater.
“This is just another form of theater,” Shea said.
Shea is one of the older students who coach Monica Baker brings back to teach the younger girls.
Baker, a teacher by profession, said synchronized swimming means everything to the community, as is a true community effort to make it all happen.
Although the number of swimmers is lower this year than in years past, she said every girl gets a chance to live one of their most amazing fantasies.
“This is an opportunity for little girls to live their fantasy of becoming a mermaid,” she said. “Here, we give them a chance to do that.”