My professional background is in public health, however, my passion for educating vulnerable communities about swimming came from my own personal experience with the water. When I was a freshman in college, I almost drowned while on spring break with friends.

As I continued to progress in my career, I started to become aware that my story was not unique. Nearly 70% of Black people do not know how to swim well and unfortunately, these numbers result in drowning rates of Black children that are ten times that of white children. It became my mission to do something about these devastating statistics and SwemKids was born.

We at SwemKids are thrilled to celebrate our 5-year anniversary of teaching swimming to underprivileged children in our communities. For the past five years, we have been dedicated to providing access to life-saving swimming lessons to children who may not have had the opportunity otherwise. As a nonprofit, we are proud to have made a positive impact in the lives of so many children and their families.

We would like to thank our loyal partners and donators for supporting our mission and helping us to reach even more children in the future. Here's to many more years of helping children learn to swim and stay safe in the water!

Children in a third group had just gotten their swim bags and gear when public pools closed, and the program had to stop due to the pandemic. SwemKids has many partners, and one of them stepped up to give children another place to swim.

William Fogler and his company, Atlanta-based event design firm WM Events, are supporters of SwemKids. When Fogler learned the program stalled because of COVID, he immediately offered his backyard pool and even donated scholarships for children to keep swimming over the summer. SwemKids was able to continue because of our amazing partners!

SwemKids started at Dunbar Elementary School, an Atlanta city school in a low-income community. To remove barriers of cost and accessibility, SwemKids provides transportation to the pool, free eight-day lessons, and all the gear needed, including swimsuit, cap, towel and goggles.

Using nearby pools at Martin Luther King, Jr. Middle School and a public aquatic center, two groups of children finished lessons just before the coronavirus pandemic closed everything down. Seeing those first groups of children complete their lessons is one of SwemKids proudest moments.

In 2019 founder Trish Miller also celebrates her first lap!