OLIVE BRANCH, Miss — Nearly 4,000 people in the U.S. die each year by unintentional drowning, with children at the highest risk and adults often being overlooked. Drowning rates are even higher for ethnic minorities with Black people dying from drowning 1.5 times more than White people, according to the CDC.
Swimming, floating and treading water are some of the pool instructions Velver Lee, also known as Coach V, teaches her swimmers to keep them safe in the water. Coach V is the main coach and CEO of Grown Women Swim, an organization aiming to increase swimming safety for adults.
One of Coach V’s assistant coaches, Angela Gaines, describes the organization as a sisterhood.
“I can’t even describe it, it’s like a sisterhood,” Gaines said. “It’s more than just women swimming. We come together [and] we pray together.”
Sharon Armstrong is one of the organizations swimmers from out of town. Armstrong flies in from Washington, D.C. each time she has a lesson. She found the program through a Facebook friend. A year later, she saw the friend's results during a vacation and knew she had to get in on the lessons.
“I’m watching her at the resort swimming across the pool and I was thinking I watched her when she was struggling and crying and just trying to overcome her fear,” Armstrong said. “Then I started following GWS and I said I’m gonna take the class and that’s it – I registered and here I am.”
Coach V has pulled in more than 250 participants this summer alone.
“Right now, I have 285 for this summer from June until now that I have taught how to conquer their fear of the water.”
It all started with teaching a friend how to swim and that friend making a Facebook post.
“I taught her and she was so happy,” Coach V said. “She posted it on Facebook and once she did that, everybody’s hands started rising ‘I wanna swim.’ ‘I wanna swim’.”
From 18 to 74 years old, Coach V teaches women of all ages, backgrounds and goals how to swim.
“For today, if I could just swim across three feet, just do some laps for exercise, get in the pool with my family and just enjoy myself in the water without fear – that would be my goal,” Armstrong said.
If you want to learn how to swim and ditch your floatie, you can sign up for swim lessons on the Grown Women Swim Facebook group.