Harry Swimmer, a Charlotte, N.C. community activist and member of the Maccabi USA Board of Directors for the past 35 years, was recipient of the annual IJSHOF Lifetime Achievement honors.
The Award was presented to Swimmer, right, by IJSHOF Chairman Alan Sherman, center, with Mel Miller, left, an original member of the Hall of Fame Executive Board of Directors.
The one-time vice-president of MUSA, a prominent East Coast insurance executive, has been a member of the Maccabiah Executive Committee, as well as the organizing committees of the 11th and 12th Maccabiahs; and has organized annual fund-raising golf tournaments benefiting the quadrennial event for many years.
May marked the anniversary of Swimmer’s Misty Meadows Mitey Riders project, developed in the mid-1990s by Harry and wife Marilyn at their Charlotte horse-breeding farm, to provide creative and therapeutic equine-assisted activities to children with special needs. To date, an estimated 700-800 young boys and girls have participated in the free annual Fall through Spring program.
At the request of Jewish community leadership, Harry headed the capital campaign for Charlotte’s Shalom Park, and raised $7 million from more than 500 participating families.
