FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE.

JAN KELLY TO RECEIVE SWIM FOR LIFE VOLUNTEER AWARD.

You know, she’s the lady on the bicycle with the Poinsettias. Jan Kelly, as colorful a character as her red-flowered bicycle and her long red hair, will receive the David Asher Volunteer Award at the Swim for Life & Paddler Flotilla on September 9 at the Mermaid Brunch ceremony at the Boatslip Resort. The public is invited. Swimmers, kayakers and volunteers are still being recruited for this 19^th annual fundraiser.

“Practice altruism, work it into your daily actions,” states Jan, who received the Cape Cod Chapter of the American Red Cross “Heroes” Award for Community Service and Impact. “Start with a kind word. We could end up with world peace.”

A Peace Corps Volunteer in Morocco, Jan has traveled and hitchhiked around the world, including trips through India and two months in a tent in Iran. From a first generation Irish Catholic family in Charlestown, she worked her way through school, earning the twenty-five cent weekly tuition for the Little Flower School by helping raise beagles and other children. At age seven she learned to pick wild mushrooms, and in high school she worked with an older, all male crew at Minuteman Car Wash.

While in college she met fellow student Phyllis Schlosberg, now owner of the Post Office Café & Cabaret, who introduced her to the summer Borsch Belt circuit in Long Island, New Jersey and the Catskills, where she learned Yiddish waiting tables, and became known as Kosher Kelly. After dinner they both performed for the tourists, with Phyllis belting out a memorable, “He’s Got the Whole World In His Hands.”

Jan saved enough to study French classical literature at the Sorbonne for two years, then taught two years in Los Angeles. For her first appearance in Provincetown, at the  invitation of Phyllis, she spent three days living on top of a dune, and then crossed the street to the Moors Restaurant where Roger Kent presided over happy hour. She wowed the unsuspecting gay crowd with an impromptu debut performance of “Take Back the Mink.”  She was offered three jobs on the spot.

Jan organizes safety boaters and kayakers at the Swim for Life, and founded and directs Tennis for Life, heads Friends of the Library, marshaled the development of the Maushope Housing complex and co-founded the Yearrounders Festival with Howie Schneider. She has also served on the board of the Provincetown Art Association, auctioneered at Helping Our Women and WOMR auctions, presided over WOMR Gong Shows, and mentored at the Academy at the high school, where she annually funds three scholarships: Humor without Sarcasm; Courtesy, Manners and Politeness; and Disciplining a Talent. And on “Soup of the Week” day she quietly delivers homemade soup to a dozen plus people in need, something she has done for three decades.

The Swim for Life benefits the AIDS Support Group of Cape Cod, Helping Our Women, Outer Cape Health Services, Cape & Island Gay Straight Youth Alliance, Provincetown Rescue Squad and the Lower Cape Ambulance Association. Business sponsors for this year to date include: The Provincetown Banner, Mike’s Movies/Boston, Paul Mitchell,  Boatslip Resort, and Far Land Provisions. The weekend fundraiser is sponsored in part by the Provincetown Tourism Fund and the Massachusetts Cultural Council and is produced by the Provincetown Community Compact, Inc.

The event will be held at the Boatslip Resort, 161 Commercial Street. Kayak and boater registration is from 8:30-10:30 am; swimmer registration, 9:30-10:30 am; Pool Swim registration for the "harborly-challenged", 9:00-10:00 am at Surfside Hotel & Suites; the public greets the swimmers at the Boatslip deck, 11:30 am-1:30 pm; Mermaid Brunch at the Boatslip featuring Zoe Lewis and friends, noon-2:00 pm; awards ceremony, 1:30 pm. Provincetown Harbor Lights at dusk at MacMillan Wharf; Helping Our Women Dance, 8:00 pm, VFW Hall (free to swimmers); Schooner Regatta in the harbor on Sunday (Storm date for Swim is Sunday).The Celebration of Life Concert (free) kicks off the weekend on Friday at 8:00 pm at the Meting House.

T-shirts designed by Paul Bowen are available at the AIDS Support Group summer store at 173 Commercial Street and at this weekend’s AIDS Auction, Venture Athletics, 306 Commercial Street, or through the Swim for Life. Prayer Ribbons, which presently fly above Commercial Street at the Meeting House, will be available throughout the weekend to be inscribed by the names of  people we honor in our lives. For pledge forms and volunteer opportunities or additional information, or to make a contribution, contact: thecompact@comcast.net, 508 487-1930, www.swim4life.org, or write, Swim for Life & Paddler Flotilla, P.O. Box 819, Provincetown, MA 02657.

                                                                    -30-