TENTH Alcatraz PATHSTAR swim—one hundred percent (and more) successful!! Huge thanks and congratulations to everyone!  

With tribal representation including Tlingit, Cheyene, Arkiara, Creek, Ohlone, Apache, and Colville Confederated Tribes, the 2012 PATHSTAR participants (literally) immersed themselves in a rigorous week of education, experience, and expanding horizons—for themselves and for their communities back home.  Each member of the PATHSTAR team responded to the many physical, emotional, and spiritual challenges during the week with remarkable courage and commitment, and all seven 2012 PATHSTAR swimmers, spanning four decades in age, had an enormously successful crossing from Alcatraz Island to the San Francisco shore on October 8, 2012 for the Tenth Annual PATHSTAR Alcatraz swim!! 

Our week in San Francisco emphasized the power of positive thinking and of focusing on our goals, not our problems.  Our success was a community effort and came to light because others believed in our potential.

Shelli Joy Martinez, Colville Confederated Tribes, 2011 and 2012 PATHSTAR Alcatraz Swimmer

What next?  The group members have returned home galvanized into deepening their own commitment to sustainable health and well-being practices and into serving as a catalyst for inspiring self-reliance and optimism within their families and communities. In addition to the work participants have been doing in their local communities, in March, 2013, a PATHSTAR team will present the keynote address at the 12th Annual Native Women & Men’s Wellness Conference in San Diego, CA, the largest tribal health conference in the US.  San Francisco television station KPIX’s “Eye on the Bay” featured an award-winning special on the 2011 PATHSTAR Alcatraz swim program in November of 2011; this has aired three more times in 2012.