What made me turn my hobby and passion swimming into
a business one, seeing the lack of diversity in
swimming that really propelled me to get a
better understanding of why isn't there enough
black people learning how to swim?
Why is there a stereotype where our bones are too
dense and that people actually believe that is
true? And most importantly, seeing the
number of drownings taking place.
We want to make swimming dope. We want to make it
accessible and fun for people, especially, most
importantly, people who look like us.
Ya'll did that!
Good job!
My name is Paulana Lamonier.
I am 31 years old from Long Island, New York.
I'm the founder and instructor of Black People
Will Swim. All the way down to your
hips. I want you to take your time.
Okay. The key to swimming is taking your time.
Yeah. Don't give up.
Don't stop. You know, I'll be honest, there
shouldn't be a thing called black people will
swim. But we exist because we are not
inclusive enough in the swimming space.
This is a call to action not just for black people,
but for everyone, that there needs to be more
inclusion. There needs to be more black and brown
children learning and not children, but people
learning how to swim and less drownings in our
communities.
Good. Okay.
Ready? Go. Good!
Kick your feet.
Last year, we taught 60 people how to swim.
This year, we have nearly 100 students in our swim
program. You're going to have your arms out your
legs. Chin up, Robin.
So I first learned how to swim when I was in
elementary school. My mom was trying to find
something for my sisters and I to do.
Growing up in a Haitian American household
Saturday mornings, it was like, Let's go, let's go.
We're going to go to swimming class.
During my years in college, as a broke
college student looking to find a job, I needed to
make some money. And luckily for me, my
coaches, they took me under their wing.
And that's kind of where I learned the world of
aquatics and what it takes to be a swim coach.
And that's kind of where I learned the professional
side of swimming, meeting with parents, lesson
planning.
All right. So let's.
One summer, I put it out on Twitter.
I'm like, Hey, y'all.
I'm giving swim lessons.
If you're in the Long Island area, come see me.
And that tweet went viral.
To this day, we still have people on the waiting
list for trying to get those lessons.
But the catalyst that moment was when we had a
student of ours who said she couldn't swim because
her bones are too dense.
And I realized, okay, well, if she's taking that
as her truth, how many black people believe that
they can't swim because their bones are too dense?
And so from there, I realized that, you know
what? This is our mission to smashing the stereotype
that black people don't swim.
I invested about $5,000, and that entailed creating
our LLC, hiring a business coach who was
actually my life coach at the time.
And then I realized that she was really good at
business. I was like, okay, you want to help me
out here with this idea?
And then also hiring our creative director.
Running a swimming business is quite the
expense. We pay about $45 an hour to rent the pool
and we rent the pool for about 16 hours a week.
We start our team off at $18 an hour.
Then, of course, our aquatics director makes
about $25 an hour.
So after all of our expenses and paying the
team, I pay myself from $500 to $1000 a month.
My family played a huge role when it came down to
growing our business, whether it was my sister
coming in and just like, Yeah, sure, I'll be your
aquatics director, I'm not going to lie.
I took a little bit of convincing to get her
involved.
I saw a grant online by Adidas called Sports
Reimagined, really trying to find women who are
reimagining the sports space.
And I was like, Oh, that sounds like us.
And what we're doing about Black People Will
Swim. So I took the initiative, I applied and
we won, and that grant was for $10,000.
And so that was the grant that really helped kick
start our crowdfunding campaign.
We're here to just refresh over what we
learned last week in the next three years.
I really hope that we're able to teach in our own
facility a place to call home.
We don't have to pay rent to somebody else or help
them pay their mortgage. No shade, but really have
a place where we can come in, learn how to swim,
teach them how to be lifeguards, teach them how
to be swim instructors.
Sort of like a for us, by us type thing.
So one of the many steps that we're doing to open
our own swimming facility is applying to grants,
applying to pitch competitions. I call
myself the grant queen.
If there is a grant out there, if there's a pitch
competition, I am applying.
Best believe that, because I do feel that there are
opportunities in ways that black businesses and
small black businesses can fund and raise their
business outside of just selling services or
selling goods.
Get it. In my area, there's around four white
swimming owned businesses I want Black People Will
Swim to be one of the first black owned swimming
facilities on Long Island doing it.
And not only for black people but for black and
brown people to see themselves and see that
it's possible.