CASCO – Four active-duty Navy SEALs plan a 13-mile Sebago Lake swim next week to raise money toward a new program for military families at Camp Sunshine in Casco.

With a security detail of guide boats and kayakers in tow, the SEALs, two of whom are local, will set out from the Veterans Memorial Park on Panther Run in Raymond at 6 a.m. on Thursday, Aug. 21, round the southern tip of Frye Island and finish at Point Sebago Resort in Casco around noon, where they will be greeted by the Freeport Flag Ladies. The following day, a Meet the SEALs Gala will be held at Camp Sunshine, a year-round retreat for children with life-threatening illnesses and their immediate families.

The swim will fund an $80,000 program that will enable 40 military families who have children with life-threatening illnesses to participate in weeklong sessions at the camp.

According to camp officials, the idea came from a Windham native who is an aide-to-camp to the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff. Cmdr. Mike W. – the SEALs have requested that their full last names be withheld, in accordance with Navy protocol – graduated from the United States Naval Academy in 1998, and has served as an active-duty Navy SEAL for 16 years, with seven deployments to Afghanistan, Iraq and locations in Asia..

In an email, the commander said that he was looking forward to the challenge. He said that the longest uninterrupted swim he has completed to date was 6 miles.

“Camp Sunshine presented a great cause, Lake Sebago presented a good challenge, and in many ways I was looking for both,” he wrote. “So it just seemed to fit. I have been serving our country in uniform for 20 years, and I strongly believe that being a servant is more than just what I do in uniform, it also extends into the community.”

He added that he “couldn’t think of a better way to support (the camp) than doing a 13-mile swim across Lake Sebago, where Camp Sunshine is. Since the lake is 13 miles long, I figured, why not just swim across it?”

The other local SEAL in the swim includes a Westbrook native, who graduated from the U.S. Naval Academy in 2006, referred to as Lt. Lew E. He has served three deployments to Asia and the Middle East. Another SEAL is a lieutenant commander from Chicago who has served three years as a surface warfare officer and nine years as a SEAL in the Middle East, and the final swimmer is a lieutenant from Pennsylvania who has been deployed to Iraq, Afghanistan and Africa during his seven years as a SEAL.

The SEALs are training in preparation for the lengthy swim, said the Windham commander.

“Each of us is training differently,” he wrote. “I’m lucky to be in a staff position right now, but that comes with its own difficulties. A normal day is 10-12 hours in the office, and the only available place to swim is a 25-yard pool. Needless to say, training in a small pool is tedious, but character building. Some of the other guys have access to the ocean, so they have been able to put some good miles in. We’ll see on the 21st whose training plan was better.”

Gary Barron, the executive director of Camp Sunshine, said that a detail of “marine security types” would secure a perimeter around the SEALs as they swim across the lake.

“Nobody’s going to get shooed away,” Barron said. “They’re going to be swimming in the wide water, and for their own protection, we’re asking the public to give them some space. There will be a perimeter around their swimming.

“The main goal is to allow these four individuals ample space to do this swim, which is a tremendous feat,” Barron added.

According to Michael Smith, the director of operations at Camp Sunshine, the swim has brought in $178,000 already. Barron said the extra funds will go toward the camp’s operating budget.

Shaw Brothers Construction in Gorham has contributed $50,000 in matching funds toward the swim. Danny Shaw, the owner of the business and a member of the camp’s board, said he had contributed the money in order to “recognize the people that fight for our country.”

“We think there is no better cause than helping these kids with cancer and with terminal illnesses,” Shaw said.