The DPCC Pirates hosted their annual Thanksgiving Thousand meet at the Del Paso Country Club in Sacramento, California on Thursday where 14-year-old Cooper Zarro raised a total of $6,700 for the community.
Zarro collected funds through donations, selling hot chocolate and meet shirts, and offering opportunities for people to sponsor swimmers. Zarro and his teammates filmed a video encouraging donations beforehand.
Cooper Zarro courtesy of Adric Jope
Turkey Thousand courtesy of Adric Jope
Turkey Thousand courtesy of Adric Jope
Turkey Thousand courtesy of Adric Jope
The funds will be donated to Raley’s Food for Families, a nonprofit organization that has partnered with Feeding America to provide more than 40 million meals across the country in the past 32 years. Each dollar that the team earned will result in one meal to local Sacramento families, explained DPCC head coach Adric Jope.
The DPCC Turkey Thousand was held as a dual meet this year with Spare Time Aquatics Sharks (STAS) where each swimmer raced a 1000 yard freestyle. 31 swimmers, ages 11-18, participated and the results are on Meet Mobile under “2021 DPCC Thanksgiving Thousand.”
Zarro raised more than three times the amount of money he collected at the 2020 DPCC Thanksgiving Thousand where he was able to donate $1825 to Raley’s Food for Families.