SOUTH LAKE TAHOE, Calif. – Lake Tahoe local, Mike Kohl, turned 50 this year, and instead of asking for gifts, he chose to challenge himself by swimming 5000 yards in exchange for donations to Lake Tahoe Wildlife Care (LTWC).
Kohl started swimming regularly as a way to stay in shape.
“My daughter just turned 21-months-old, so I’m an older parent,” said Kohl. “I started looking at time differently.”
He set out to enhance his health and vitality for the long-term benefit of raising his daughter, and realized as his 50th birthday was approaching, he didn’t want gifts this year – he wanted to make a difference.
When choosing a nonprofit to channel his efforts into, Kohl knew he was passionate about not just his health, but the health of the planet.
“The planet has half the wildlife it had when I was born,” he said. “Which is astounding. 50 years in the history of a planet is not a long time.”
In a comprehensive study conducted every two years by the World Wildlife Fund, their most recent Living Planet Report showed an astonishing 73% drop in the average size of wildlife populations of more than 5000 vertebrae species from 1970 to 2020.
“We really need to focus on this,” Kohl said. “And where we live, there’s an abundance of wildlife.”
From eagles, bears and coyotes to American river otters, Tahoe is teeming with a variety of species, and among the organizations committed to the rescue, rehabilitation and release of Tahoe’s wildlife is LTWC.
His familiarity with the organization started over 30 years ago, when Kohl’s aunt was an early volunteer for LTWC before they had their facility, rehabilitating animals ranging from bluebirds to minks in her own backyard.
After Kohl, himself, attempted to volunteer several times in recent years, he realized the organization already had an influx of volunteer support.
“It says a lot about our community,” he said. “I thought, ‘Okay, well if I’m not needed there, what if I could raise some money for them?'”
So he hit the water, training every day in the Tahoe Keys pool by testing his limits to see how far he could go, roughly averaging 2000 yards a day. Although he hit some challenges, including a brief pause to his training due to shoulder pain caused by an improper swimming technique, Kohl kept pushing.
“I thought, ‘Is the shoulder going to be the thing that stops me?” said Kohl.
As it turned out, changing his stroke made him faster, and by the time July rolled around, Kohl was ready.
His birthday swim took place on July 8, and he swam 5000 yards in two hours while raising his goal of $500 for LTWC.
“Hopefully it will inspire people to care for themselves and for wildlife more,” said Kohl, who encourages anyone interested in donating to visit https://ltwc.org/.
