SIMI VALLEY : Swimmers to Raise Funds for Memorial

Nearly 70 swimmers from Royal High School in Simi Valley will take to the pool Saturday to raise money for a scholarship program in memory of a teammate who died of cancer last year.

A memorial scholarship for Royal High School swimmers has been established in the name of Josh Mlakar, who died of bone cancer in March, 1990, at age 16, said Bruce Hooker, president of the Royal High Aquatics Boosters.

Students in the school’s aquatics program will participate Saturday in the “Swim for Josh” fund-raiser. His former teammates will swim laps for pledges that they solicited beforehand.

Josh was diagnosed with cancer in August, 1988, and swam in several races while he received treatment. But the illness eventually forced him to stay on the pool deck, where he remained involved by keeping score and helping the coaches, Hooker said.

“He was a typical teen-ager in a lot of ways, but he was also a very good athlete,” Hooker said. “He was consistently a top swimmer.”

A bronze plaque and a special memorial tree planted on the north side of the Royal High pool complex will also be dedicated to Josh before Saturday’s swim.

Lana Mlakar, Josh’s mother, said these touches would have made her son happy.

“It was always his concern, especially in the latter period of his life, that he would be forgotten after he died,” she said.

“He would be so honored to know that the friends he cared about so deeply were involved in this. I would like to think that he will be there somehow on Saturday.”