Fifth-graders at Our Lady of the Lake Catholic School, Ashland, enjoyed a presentation by Lisa Weispfenning of Washburn, who swam across the English Channel in August with three other women from Northwest Wisconsin. The relay team call themselves the WisconSWIM Mermaids and they trained for three years between Lake Superior and the saltwater in California and Florida. The women, all in their 40s and 50s, swam the almost 21 miles from the coast of England to France in 11 hours and 21 minutes. More than 300 people attempt the swim annually; the WisconSWIM Mermaids were the first women from Wisconsin to complete the distance. (Submitted photo)
