The Provincetown Community Compact honors Janet Whelan and Roger Martin with the David Asher Volunteer Award
/The Provincetown Community Compact honors Janet Whelan and Roger Martin with the David Asher Volunteer Award at the 38th Provincetown Swim for Life & Paddler Flotilla, set for September 6, 2025.
The Swim for Life is a beautiful metaphor about life – keep your head above water. - Dr. Janet Whelan
Dr. Janet Whelan and Roger Martin with Lucy in the East End backyard. Photo by Jay Critchley, 2025
Dr. Janet Whelan and Roger Martin will receive the annual David Asher Volunteer Award at the Awards Ceremony at the 38th Provincetown Swim for Life & Paddler Flotilla that follows the Swim on Saturday, September 6 at 1:00 pm at Johnson Street beach under the big white tent. This quintessential Provincetown tradition and fundraiser has raised $7M for AIDS, women’s health and the community since 1988, supporting thirteen non-profit beneficiaries. For information go to swim4life.org.
While I was sitting in Janet Whelan and Roger Martin’s kitchen one early summer day, the majestic, oversized grandfather clock sounded at 9:30 am. However, it was actually about 10:00 am according to Janet. This family heirloom, some considered it a dinosaur, was stashed in a tomb-like box for decades when she grew up in her family’s home in Provincetown. She reluctantly inherited it, now sitting proudly, out of time but entitled, an ever-present personality in a home that shows no sign of gentrification.
Janet and Roger have spent a lifetime volunteering. Janet studied dance at Radcliff and with Martha Graham in NYC, and received her BA from Harvard before attending Columbia University where she worked nights to complete premed courses. She received her MD from SUNY NY in 1984. She returned to Provincetown and was hired on the spot by Dr. Brian O’Malley and worked as a primary care physician with him and Dr. Wilsa Ryder for fourteen years, followed by twelve years at Outer Cape Health.
Roger became a Peace Corps volunteer in Colombia in the 1960s in between attending the University of Minnesota where he received architecture and MFA degrees. During college, one memorable summer job was driving a Coca Cola delivery truck, servicing the National Guard’s Camp Wellfleet, the Truro Air Force Base and the myriad businesses in Provincetown. Raised in Milton and vacationing at his family’s summer home in Orleans, he was lured to Provincetown, purchasing the couple’s present home in 1982.
Janet and Roger immersed themselves in the life of their adopted hometown, raising their son and welcoming Roger’s daughter for the summers. Roger worked as a carpenter and mechanic with F A Days and Bill Fitts and volunteered with the Provincetown Fire Department for forty-two years. Janet volunteered for decades with the Swim for Life medical team, swimming twice across the harbor for the annual fundraiser. Roger and the Rescue Squad have been an essential presence at the event’s thirty-seven year history.
The couple also volunteered for many years in Honduras through Cape Cares and in Guatemala with Guatemala Medical Resources Partnership.
For those interested in swimming the 1.2 mile or Half-Mile Swims in Provincetown Harbor or the Swim in Wellfleet’s Great Pond on September 6, or volunteering or kayaking, contact the Swim at swim4life.org.
The Swim begins at 11:00 am on September 6 and the public is encouraged to cheer the swimmers on at the finish line at Johnson Street Beach, at private Watch Parties or by joining gatherings at the Cape Codder Guest House, St. Mary of the Harbor and Angel Foods parking lot. The famous Mermaid Brunch will be catered by Far Land Provisions with music by Zoe Lewis. The Awards Ceremony is at 1:00 pm.
The Provincetown Community Compact is a non-profit organization established in 1993 to nurture the Provincetown and Outer Cape community. Its mission is to enhance the well-being of the community through projects that incorporate the arts, the environment and the economy. It has birthed nine non-profits such as the Provincetown International Film Festival, the Tennessee Williams Theater Festival, Provincetown Commons, Summer of Sass, Wellfleet Porchfest, Tim McCarthy Human Rights Champion Fund and Pilgrim Bark Park. The results position The Compact as an economic generator.Twenty-eight business sponsors support this community celebration.
Along with the Swim for Life, Compact projects include the Think-ubator, Prayer Ribbons, Underrepresented Communities and dune shack residencies in Cape Cod National Seashore.
Untitled by Roger Martin; Rockland silver gelatin photo emulsion on Rives paper; Sta. Marta, Colombia, 11” X 14”, 1972. Shown recently at the Beachcombers’ Club show at the Mary Heaton Vorse House.
