In order to stay afloat, the Oxford varsity swim program is inviting the public to attend its “Sink or Swim” fund-raising event at the high school pool on Sunday, Feb. 12 from 1-3 p.m.

The event will offer loads of family fun, including relay and one-on-one races, poolside games, 50/50 and themed-basket raffles, and even a bake sale. Admission is free and lifeguards will be on duty.

Swim team members, alumni, parents, coaches and community members will be participating in the various relay races.

Anyone with swimming experience, age 10 and older, can donate and take part in one of these relay races or pay a minimum of $15 to race one-on-one against a varsity swimmer of their choosing.

Oxford’s athletes will be swimming lengths of the pool that day. Members of the public are invited to sponsor their favorite Wildcat swimmer on either a per-length basis or via a flat donation. Each swimmer will be capped at 66 lengths, which equals one mile.

Jacquelyn Rank, head coach of the Wildcat swim/dive teams since 2007, said it will be similar to the fund runs in the fall where elementary school students run laps to raise money for the various PTOs.

Kids under the age of 10 are invited to play poolside games for $1 per game.

All proceeds will help the boys and girls teams pay for things such as swim suits and training items, including fins, kickboards, pull-buoys and paddles.

“More importantly, the fund-raising helps us to purchase equipment . . . to run an efficient (swim) meet since many times we host the league meet,” Rank explained. “The technology needed to run a meet can be very expensive and I would like to help the school district out as much as possible.”

For example, each lane in the pool requires a touchpad, an electronic device used in competitions to accurately record swimmers’ times. These touchpads cost $875 each.

“Touchpads have a life expectancy of 10 years and six of our eight pads are currently over 12 years old since they were purchased when the pool was built,” Rank said.

“We have a great group . . . (of swimmers) and I would love to be able to cut (their) costs and give them the equipment they deserve,” Rank noted. “We will use the current equipment for as long as we need to.”

In addition to raising funds, Rank hopes this event will help raise awareness about Oxford’s swim program.

Rank feels like “many people in the community don’t know much about” it.

“We are hoping that this will get younger athletes who are interested in swimming to come check out the facility and the teams,” she said.

“Any good high school (sports team) has a good feeder program,” Rank noted. “Take Oxford wrestling, their youth program is one of the main reasons (they’re consistently successful).”

Rank believes getting kids participating in swimming and diving programs at a young age leads to more highly-skilled and experienced competitors in high school.