This year we have taught swim lessons to over 225 different people! We are supporting another 250 Portland Public School second graders in lessons with the City of Portland. More facts and figures inside!

Maine Community Swimming has kicked off the Fall season. We will be working with 50 Portland High School students between the start of school and December break. We are also working with our friends at the Maine Association for New Americans and The Frances Warde House. We have many of our veteran volunteers back at the pool, as well as a number of new volunteers, helping to share their love of swimming.

The annual program highlights Black and Black immigrant children’s books and their creators.

“Part of my thinking behind Maine Community Swimming is that we can take some of that fear away and turn it into joy.” — Executive Director Brooke Teller

This summer we partnered with Maine Community Integration and the Maine Audubon to offer swim lessons to teenage girls participating in their four week program.

We recently collaborated with the Intercultural Community Center of Westbrook for the “Wonders of Water” program, welcoming 60 middle schoolers from the Westbrook School Department to a free and transformative aquatic adventure.

One hurdle for swimming lessons throughout Maine is a lack of available pools, said Brooke Teller, the founder of Maine Community Swimming. That has also created a barrier for increasing the number of trained lifeguards, Teller said.

Maine Community Swimming has been supporting triathletes participating in this year’s Tri for a Cure. We held a clinic with 10 ‘brand new to open water’ swimmers and have been serving as ‘Swim Angels’ at the official swim clinics for the event.

On March 22nd, Maine Community Swimming held their inaugural fundraising event featuring four amazing women who shared how their lives intersect with the water.

Maine Community Swimming has had a wonderful Fall. We partnered with Portland High School and Portland Adult Education to offer lessons to more than 50 students.

Maine Community Swimming has had a great summer. We are so humbled by the positive response and support we’ve received since we launched just a few short months ago. 

Thank you to our partners at the Maine Association for New Americans for this shout out in their latest newsletter!

Brooke Teller has been running Maine Community Swimming for a few months. She offers free swim classes to Mainers of all ages. Teller says, "We've had a few drownings in the state this summer and we don't want that to continue happening."

An overreliance on the inflatables appears to be a factor in the childhood drowning crisis; drowning is the leading cause of death for children ages 1 to 4.

Read the full opinion piece published in the Portland Press Herald here.

So why have lessons become a privilege rather than a given?

Read the full piece by Gabriella Gage from the Boston Globe here.

Excellence - and equity - starts with access to community pools.

Read the full opinion piece published by the Portland Press Herald here.

Read the full essay by this young man and the story behind him learning to swim here, published originally by The Telling Room.

Paulana Lamonier is on a mission: “smashing the stereotype that black people don’t swim.”

Read the full story on Paulana and her business Black People Will Swim from Forbes here.

While the majority of people worldwide cannot swim, women account for most of them. Almost six in 10 men (57%) say they can swim, but only one in three women (32%) say they can.

Read the full blog post by RJ Reinhart here.