(Providence, RI) – On Saturday, September 6, 2025, Swim Across America – Rhode Island Open Water Swim (SAA-RI) will hold its 16th annual charity swim at scenic Scarborough North State Beach at 870 Ocean Road, Narragansett, Rhode Island. Proceeds from this event will directly support crucial and often life-saving cancer research at Women & Infants Hospital. Established in 2010, SAA-RI has raised over $2.5 million to fund cancer research at one of the nation’s leading specialty hospitals for women and newborns, Rhode Island’s Women & Infants Hospital.
Each year, the Rhode Island charity swim attracts over 700 swimmers and volunteers who enthusiastically show up to support this worthy cause. This year’s open water swim includes various swim options and one virtual option: a 1-mile, 0.5-mile, or 0.25-mile open water swim, or SAA My Way (virtual).
Funding from SAA-RI has supported researchers at WIH in discovering a new biomarker for ovarian cancer and helped establish a clinical algorithm that enhances the ability to estimate the risk of ovarian cancer in women with a pelvic mass.
“There’s something incredibly powerful about coming together as a community, right here on our beautiful Rhode Island coast, to swim with purpose. Every stroke taken during this event fuels the groundbreaking cancer research happening at Women & Infants Hospital. This year, it’s not just a swim, it’s a celebration of hope, resilience, and families making a difference together,” said Shannon R. Sullivan, president and COO of Women & Infants Hospital.
Founded in 1987, Swim Across America is a national nonprofit organization that holds 24 open water swims and hundreds of pool swims across the country, from Boston to under the Golden Gate Bridge. The organization has an interesting history as it started with a sunken boat in Long Island Sound at its first-ever open water swim and has turned its passion for swimming and fighting cancer into $100 million that supports cancer research throughout the country.
Over several decades, Swim Across America funding has contributed to four FDA-approved life-saving immunotherapy treatments: Yervoy, Opdivo, Tecentriq, and Keytruda, and supports research with more than 60 scientific grants funded each year.
While hundreds of local swimmers and water and land volunteers join in the swim, the Rhode Island event is known for having more college swim teams participate than any other swim in the country.
The Women & Infants research team working on projects funded by this event includes lab members Payton De La Cruz, PhD, Postdoctoral Research Fellow; Angelica Salaverria, Brown PhD Student; Julia McAdams, Lab Manager; Samantha Buyungo, Tissue Bank Research Assistant; Julia Salinaro, MD, GYN/ONC fellow; Chloe Kim, Maria Gonsalves, Brown Undergraduate Researchers; Kate Grive, PhD, and the Grive Lab. Key partners include PWO attendings, Oncology Clinical Research, Pathology (Dr. Ou and Dr. Singh), and Richard Freiman, PhD, Brown University.
Join us for the 16th annual SAA-RI swim on Saturday, September 6th at Scarborough North State Beach! To learn more about Swim Across America or to register to swim, volunteer, or donate, please visit swimacrossamerica.org/rhodeisland.
About Women & Infants Hospital
Women & Infants Hospital of Rhode Island, a Care New England hospital, is one of the nation’s leading specialty hospitals for women and newborns. A major teaching affiliate of The Warren Alpert Medical School of Brown University for obstetrics, gynecology, and newborn pediatrics, as well as a number of specialized programs in women’s medicine, Women & Infants is the ninth largest stand-alone obstetrical service in the country and the largest in New England with approximately 8,700 deliveries per year. Women & Infants is a Designated Baby-Friendly® USA hospital and was recently ranked by Newsweek as one of America's Best Maternity Hospitals in 2024. The Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology ranked 11 in U.S. News & World Report’s 2019 Best Medical Schools specialty ranking.
Women & Infants has been designated as a Breast Imaging Center of Excellence by the American College of Radiography; a Center of Excellence in Minimally Invasive Gynecology; and a Neonatal Resource Services Center of Excellence. It is one of the largest and most prestigious research facilities in high-risk and normal obstetrics, gynecology, and newborn pediatrics in the nation, and is a member of the Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health and Human Development (NICHD) Maternal Fetal Medicine Units Network, and Pelvic Floors Disorders Network, as well as the National Cancer Institute’s Gynecologic Oncology Group.
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