Over 100 Swimmers Ply The Hudson For Feeding Westchester

Published 7 months ago7m ago • Bookmarks: 257 • Comments: 1

Veronica Alvarez from Elmwood Park New Jersey finished first in this year's Lighthouse Swim

September 14, 2025

By Barrett Seaman—

The swimmers, 113 in number by the time they hit the water, were not yet in sight as Marty McGinnity gazed out from Kingsland Point Park at a remarkably placid river under an azure blue sky, recalling last year’s aborted Lighthouse Swim. “We were owed,” said McGinnity, one of the event’s organizers.

Indeed, Mother Nature repaid the debt on September 14, 2025 after pummeling the lower Hudson last year with gusty winds that stirred up the Hudson, prompting the Coast Guard to call the event off. This year, with hardly a ripple to be seen and minimal resistance from tidal shifts, Veronica Alvarez of Elmwood Park, NJ was the first to hit the scruffy beach upriver from the Sleepy Hollow Lighthouse just over an hour from her start in Nyack three miles across.

Support our Sponsors

Dani Vanover, 17, the youngest entrant in the 2025 Lighthouse Swim

The big winner was Feeding Westchester, the local charity that provides thousands of meals each year to residents living with food insecurity. The registration fee for entrants was $200. Since 130 signed up, the event began with a $26,000 nest egg and built from there. “Gold” sponsors Northwell Health, yoghurt maker Danone and the Dawley family of Sleepy Hollow gave thousands more, and an anonymous donor added a final $10,000, leading organizers to estimate that they would raise over $60,000 before the books close.

The fastest swimmers are the last to launch from Nyack but inevitably deliver the first finishers. Out to protect the rest of the pack were 41 kayakers, five experienced paddleboarders and 11 boats. Swimmers came from 12 states and five countries. The youngest entrant was Dani Conover of Sleepy Hollow. The oldest was 74-year-old Frederic Mishkin. On the Kingsland Point side, 25 volunteers waited with towels, food and drink while six EMT vehicles stood by in case any of the swimmers were in distress.

Two brothers from the city started from Nyack: Jose Yarba took to the river while brother Eli used the Mario M. Cuomo Bridge to cross the Hudson by foot, arriving in just over an hour—well ahead of his brother.