RVC Links wins the 2024 Mary Cup
Swimmers at the Rockville Links and Hempstead Golf and Country Club came together on July 23, to compete in the sixth annual Mary Cup.
The annual interclub swim meet and fundraiser is held each summer in honor of Mary Ruchalski, a seventh-grade student at St. Agnes Cathedral School in Rockville Centre who died in March 2018 of rhabdomyosarcoma — a rare form of pediatric cancer.
She is remembered as a talented multisport athlete who played lacrosse, softball, basketball and soccer, but most of all she loved the water, and was a talented swimmer.
The reason that the competition centers around these two teams is because Mary was a competitive swimmer for both organizations. Carol said that when she was only eight, she won the club championship for Hempstead, surpassing competitors nearly twice her age and size.
Her mother, Carol Ruchalski, created the Mary Ruchalski Foundation in 2018 in memory of her daughter, with the goal of raising awareness and funding for critical pediatric cancer research at the Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory.
“It was a perfect day. It was sunny. It was hot. Just like she liked it,” Carol said. “It’s really nice because, while most of the kids now don’t know Mary, they do know Mary from this, so it keeps her spirit and her message alive.”
This year, more than 300 swimmers and parents gathered at the Rockville Links for the 2024 Mary Cup competition. Swimmers went head-to-head in a friendly competition to determine who would take home the 2024 Mary Cup. In the end, it was the Rockville Links who came out victorious this year.
To learn more about the Mary Cup or to help donate to the foundation’s fight to find a cure for rhabdomyosarcoma and other forms of pediatric cancer, visit TheMaryRuchalskiFoundation.org. And be sure to RSVP to the second annual Hearts of Gold Gala on Saturday, September 14 at the St. Agnes Parish Center.
