Who We Are

Swim 4 Vets was started by Diana Moissonnier with one goal in mind; to help United States veterans by swimming marathon relay swims across the continental Unites States.  Marathon swimming is not for the faint of heart.  It requires strength, stamina and a slight case of the crazies. Water temperatures range from low 50's to mid 70's depending on location of swim and time of year.  Most swims are 20 or more miles.

​Swim 4 Vets teams up with a veteran charity in the area of their swim and starts a charity drive through various fundraising as well as the swim itself.  Rather then duplicating what other veteran non-profits are doing, Swim 4 Vets is about aligning themselves with like minded, well established veteran charities to help the men and women who have given everything to protect our country.

Swim 4 Vets looks for Veteran Charities to align with to bring positive changes in our veterans lives.  Swim 4 Vets never handles any of the donation money and has always asked the charity to set up a separate page for donations on their website that Swim 4 Vets can have a link we can direct to for donations.   We feel that if the donor can see where their money is going then they will have confidence to donate and share information about Swim 4 Vets and the aligned charity.

Our History

Swim 4 Vets was started in 2015, by Diana Moissonnier, your average American citizen.  Diana is not a veteran herself but has many family members and friends who have served or who are currently serving. Diana was going to do the Catalina Channel as a solo swim but had to cancel when she tore her rotator cuff and had surgery to repair it.
Even though Diana couldn't swim she held a virtual swim and raised $1,200 for the two charities that she had chosen for her swim.  AMVETS and Soldiers Best Friend.

In 2016, with her shoulder healed, Diana started to search for open water swimmers who would be willing to join her on her quest of conquering open bodies of water around the United States and helping military veterans.  Diana was lucky enough to get Dan Simonelli, a veteran of marathon swims and a United States Marine veteran, to be her first teammate.  Next was Amber Baker and through her, two other swimmers were quickly added.  Michael Martin, a USMC Vietnam veteran, found Swim 4 Vets, via google, and asked to be a member of the team.  Catalina Channel was Swim 4 Vets first official channel swim. It was overseen by the Catalina Swimming Federation and will go in their books as a successful channel crossing.
Date of swim: August 6 - 7, 2017 
Unofficial time: 12:03:34
Miles swum: 20

Father Joe's Village of San Diego was the chosen charity as it helps a large community of homeless veterans in San Diego.  In total we raised $1,437.