Brooke McMahan looks like a mermaid in the drawing, her long curls unfurling into trails of stars as she moves through the water.
Her mom, retired Beacon Journal writer Kim Hone-McMahan, taught Brooke to swim in the family’s backyard pool when she was about 3, slowly deflating the water wings Brooke wore that summer until they were empty pockets of plastic and Brooke was paddling on her own. Brooke, who went on to swim with the Summit Special Olympics Athletic Club, died unexpectedly at her family’s home during a seizure July 30, 2003.
Yet her memory and love of the water has lived on, with about 150 swimmers with special needs — and 200 volunteers to help them — gathering Saturday at the University of Akron’s Ocasek Natatorium for the 12th annual Brooke McMahan Memorial Invitational Swim Meet.
The event, which draws from Summit and surrounding counties, has grown into the second-largest meet of its kind in Ohio. Only the state Special Olympics Games attracts more swimmers, organizers said.
Standing poolside Saturday, looking across at the swimmers in the stands and the volunteers — each wearing a T-shirt with the drawing of her daughter — Kim Hone-McMahan was in awe.
“How do you thank people for keeping your daughter’s memory alive?” she asked.
Summit County Common Pleas Judge Thomas A. Teodosio and his wife, Summit County Juvenile Court Judge Linda Tucci Teodosio, slipped into their black courtroom robes just after 10:30 a.m. and administered the Special Olympics oath said by all the swimmers:
“Let me win. But if I cannot win, let me be brave in the attempt.”
And into the water the swimmers went, along with many of the volunteers — made up of swim teams from UA and three local high schools — to work on technique before afternoon competition.
Amy Marginean, 30, of Canton, was perfecting her flip turn.
A cousin taught her to swim in her backyard pool while Marginean’s mom, Sue, was at work.
“One day, I was vacuuming and I look outside and see Amy in the pool,” Sue Marginean said. “I hollered, ‘Amy, get out of there, you’re going to get hurt.’ ”
Sue Marginean, who doesn’t know how to swim, now marvels over her daughter’s ability. Amy Marginean swims the 25-yard event, but needs to master the flip turn to swim the 50-yard.
In the water Saturday, Amy Marginean swam toward the wall, curled her legs up toward her chest, dipped her chin down, and tucked into a ball before somersaulting and pushing off the pool wall with her feet, hardly slowing her momentum.
Stopping to chat
McMahan and her husband, Chris, said their daughter would be honored by the event. For the first time in 12 years, the president of the University of Akron and the CEO of Special Olympics Ohio showed up and addressed the crowd.
But, the McMahans said, the swim meet wouldn’t fit their daughter without silliness built in.
For Brooke, the pool was a place to socialize. She would often swim halfway into the lane, stand up and linger, talking to all the swimmers passing by, some of whom stopped to chat. Her family and friends nicknamed her “babbling Brooke.”
So after the clinic, and before a competition began, swimmers indulged in relays — water polo, kickboard and, Brooke’s favorite, doggy paddle. Talking was encouraged.
“I think of this as a redemptive story,” Brooke’s younger brother, Alex McMahan, said Saturday.
It was a struggle after his sister died. But being in the hot and humid natatorium with all the volunteers and swimmers every year, Alex McMahan said, his family can feel the love from everyone around.
“Love is just easy,” Alex McMahan said, “and [this shows] how we can do it so easily.”
Amanda Garrett can be reached at 330-996-3725 or agarrett@thebeaconjournal.com.