Ridgway swims away with chamber volunteer honors

SANDPOINT — Long Bridge Swim founder Eric Ridgway was honored as August’s top volunteer by the Greater Sandpoint Chamber of Commerce

Ridgway, who serves as director of the Long Bridge Swim, founded the event in 1995 when he talked 68 of his closest friends into swimming across the lake next to the Long Bridge. At the time, a lot of people thought he was crazy, but the event has grown over the years and, this year, 881 swimmers registered for the event.

Ridgway said the swim is a very complex event to stage, requiring the efforts of more than 300 volunteers and the assistance of the Bonner County Sheriff’s Office Marine Division and regular deputies, the Coast Guard Auxiliary, Bonner County EMS, Bonner General Hospital, more than 100 kayakers, logistics, food, music, timing, registration, transportation, etc.

Additionally, this past year the LBS made the transition to being a year-round program with the development of their swim lessons initiative that has been so generously supported by their sponsors and swimmers.

Ridgway was born in Roanoke, Va., and grew up in Bryn Mawr, Pa., outside of Philadelphia. He attended Colby College in Maine, where he studied geology and was the captain of his college swim team. When he was 13, he went to Africa for a month and, as a young adult, taking a break from studies, he returned to Kenya for about a year as a teacher.

This experience was what led him to eventually become a therapist. Ridgway began working with struggling and at risk teens, moved west to be in the mountains and completed his master’s degree in counseling at Washington State University. He has been a professional counselor in Sandpoint since 1991.

He continues his love of swimming by devoting much of his free time as the director of the Long Bridge Swim. Ridgway hikes a great deal and enjoys rock collecting and bird watching with wife Cindy, who proposed marriage to him after she completed the ninth annual Long Bridge Swim. They were married the following year in 2004.

Ridgway volunteers tirelessly in the Sandpoint area, with the Long Bridge Swim, Festival at Sandpoint, Human Rights Task Force and Panida Theater, to name just a few. He also aided the local high school lacrosse team by offering to become a referee to assist the organization in getting started here in Sandpoint. He helped found the Sandpoint Vegetarians and along with the swim, his dearest passion is supporting the Panhandle Animal Shelter.

“Eric is the most enthusiastic, positive, energetic and fun person I know,” said Jim Zuberbuhler. “Eric, I can think of no other person more deserving of the volunteer of the month award. Congratulations.”