Youth Venture

Wild and Water provides free swimming lessons for economically disadvantaged kids.

The inspiration for Wild and Water came while the lead Venturer, Laura White, was on a camping trip with a group of economically disadvantaged girls from Atlanta, GA. While on the trip, Laura was asked to chaparone a swimming excursion, and was alarmed at what she saw. The kids were jumping in the water without knowing how to swim, and had no basic sense of water safety.
After that, Laura held a swim clinic with Dynamo Swim Club in Chamblee, GA, and it was quite a success. All of the kids knew how to float by the end of the day. That's when the rest of the Youth Venture team, Dekalb Aquatics swimmers Clarice Brown, Jarrette Tate, DJ Hughes, and Carlos Jones heard about the kids and their swimming problems. Together with Laura, everyone approached head Dekalb Aquatics Swim Coach Melissa Wilborn and suggested regular swimming lessons for the kids. Thus, Wild and Water was born. Ever since, Wild and Water has taught over 70 kids at least how to float, tread water, and do the crawl. Many can do even more.
Our goal for 2007-2008 are to expand the program to work with even more swim teams and even more kids in even more cities. Specifically, 200 more kids in Atlanta with the help of Dekalb Aquatics, Dynamo Swim Club, and possibly Swim Atlanta, and 70 kids in Savannah, GA and 70 kids in New Orleans, LA. Right now, we need to find more funding for all of these groups, and find a swim team to work with in Savannah and a group of kids to work with in New Orleans.