One of my favorite movies is "Escape From Alcatraz" (1979) starring Clint Eastwood. The tagline from this flick reads, "No one has ever escaped from Alcatraz....and no one ever will!" The story is basically about three guys who made some makeshift rafts while imprisoned in 1962 and supposedly escaped the island. Their bodies were never found so there is speculation as to whether they made it.

During the twenty-nine years the Alcatraz Island prison was in operation (1934-1963), it was considered impossible for anyone to escape. The reasoning was that even if someone escaped from the prison and made it to the water, there was no way they could endure the swim to the mainland. During Alcatraz's operation, five prisoners drowned giving it a try.

With that as background, fast forward to April 25, 2007. Alcatraz prison had been closed for forty-four years as 49 members of Scottsdale, Arizona's Swim Neptune entered the 53 degree water to take a shot at swimming the 1.5 miles from Alcatraz to San Francisco's Aquatic Park. Among the group was Englewood's 6 time Olympic Gold Medalist Amy Van Dyken. Amy now lives in Scottsdale and works with the kids at Swim Neptune which includes 9 year old Braxton Bilbrey, who at age 8 last year, became the youngest to ever make the Alcatraz swim. This year Emma Schlenker, 9, of Phoenix, became the youngest girl to make the swim. Amy, who will be the only American inducted into the International Swimming Hall of Fame in May, enjoyed the swim but said that it wasn't easy as there were several tricky currents in the bay.

My jaw drops when I read this kind of stuff. I never was much of a swimmer; I was more of a "flailer" and took on many of the characteristics of a rock when around water. The parents of the Swim Neptune kids should be applauded for influencing their children toward swimming. It's a great sport that can be done throughout one's lifetime to maintain a high level of fitness. It also is nice to have an Olympic Gold Medalist like Amy Van Dyken there for encouragement.

Oh, did I mention that the Neptune swimmers also raised $20,000 for the Foundation for Aquatic Safety and Training? Congratulations, kids, for a great effort.

Jim McAllister also writes blogs and columns for the Scottsdale Republic at blogs.azcentral.com. Click "Plugged-In-Scottsdale."