Turlock family heads to Tahoe for long swim, good cause

Sunday will be a marathon for Harry and Max Boucher, the father-and-son team swimming to raise money for sports facilities adapted for the disabled.

Harry Boucher, 45, will swim, towing Max, 11, in a bright green kayak across Lake Tahoe, a 12-mile haul from Sand Harbor State Park to Skylandia Beach.

He expects the freestyle swim to take about six hours, but that’s just a best guess. The two have never swum even half that far, and Lake Tahoe poses some extra challenges.

First, altitude: The lake sits at 6,225 feet. It’s cold, though in July the surface temperature should have warmed to 65 degrees, according to www.tahoe.usgs.gov. It’s big – 12 miles east-west and 22 miles north-south – too big to navigate by sight.

That he is a double amputee pulling a 130-pound wheelchair rider across a huge, open expanse never really comes up. This is what they do.

Sitting in the family shoe store in Turlock the day before they were to leave for South Lake Tahoe, Boucher had no qualms, no butterflies.

“I think I’m going to make it,” he said confidently. “I welcome the challenge.”

Max has super sunscreen and a big hat. Boucher has a navigation app and a wet suit he hopes not to wear, but both will be on a support boat he rented to chug alongside them. He also bought big water guns for all the cousins to stay entertained through the ride.

Family members will be cheering on the two, from his sister and her 2-month-old to his parents, Ken and Ernestine Boucher, second-generation owners of Bouchers Comfort Shoes, where Harry Boucher works. Max pitches in caring for the shoe displays after school, becoming the fourth Boucher generation to work there.

All generations of Bouchers are on board with the Tahoe swim. The plan is to raise money through the Society for Disabilities for the Miracle League baseball field and adapted playground being built in north Modesto beside Big Valley Grace Community Church.

Boucher estimates he has $4,000 in donor commitments, but hoped to raise at least twice that. Miracle League advisers, however, told him not to expect too much. “They said the first year is more a friend raiser than a fundraiser,” he said.

That’s OK, too, he said. Because another goal is to raise awareness of how little there is to do for kids with orthopedic disabilities.

Harry Boucher lost both feet to a meningitis infection while a toddler, but was able to keep moving with prostheses and went on to compete in high school swimming and water polo. Max has cerebral palsy and finds wheelchair riders face higher barriers.

Outside of his weekly adapted physical education classes, Max just watches his classmates run around. “They went out to play soccer. I asked, ‘What could I do?’ They said, ‘Just sit there,’” he said.

“At school, they always say, ‘You have it easier,’ because I have a chair,” Max said. “No, I don’t.”

Ramps that lead to nowhere. Adapted facilities reached by stairs. Playgrounds that stop wheelchairs at the bark-encompassing curb. “There’s no thought,” Boucher said with a sigh of frustration.

“I’m hoping it will help with people being aware that there isn’t a lot for kids to do who have mobility issues,” he said. “It’s a need I think needs to be filled.”

This story was originally published July 8, 2015 at 3:41 PM with the headline "Turlock family heads to Tahoe for long swim, good cause."