Wanda Butt’s 16 year old son Josh drowned in 2007. Rather than just be a sad statistic, she started a lifesaving program called Project Josh. Her page on the Diversity in Swimming page has this quote:

I am Josh’s Moms. From the tragedy of losing my son Josh to drowning – my goal is to be triumphant and to help other mothers avoid such a horrific loss. I have been inspired to “make a difference and stop the drowning.” The Josh Project is my vision. The Josh Project will save lives by teaching water safety and minority children to swim for free! I want parents to know the importance of our children knowing how to swim. Swimming is a life skill, an accredited sport and fun! The drowning rate in our communities is like an epidemic – but together we can “cure” it. In partnership with USA Swimming the national governing body of swimmers we can make a difference. My vision for The Josh Project is to have a JPAC (Josh Project Aquatic Center) where we teach swimming, water safety, boating safety in classes and in the pools. We can do it. I believe that GOD is on my side and I will not fear. To GOD be the GLORY.

Wanda Butts is based in Toledo OH, and she has a Norfolk VA branch of Project Josh run by Norfolk State faculty member, Shaun Anderson. Anderson was a competitive swimmer at age 5 who went on to swim for Penn State University. He is trying to get a swim team started at Norfolk State, where he is director of pool operations.

These people are doing something besides hand-wringing and pontificating. Anderson would like to see more black competitive swimmers. Butts would like to see 100% black swimming proficiency. They are working together towards the latter goal by offering free swim lessons.

What they’re finding is that in reaching towards the 100% swim goal, they’re getting more people interested in the competitive swimming goal as well. In all the circular arguments as to why there aren’t any more competitive black swimmers, nobody thinks that swimming proficiency would have anything to do with it.

But I could see that. I hated swimming when I didn’t know how to do it. Now I am passionate about it. I am not alone. We can all make a difference by supporting programs like Project Josh. For more information, check out the Project Josh website.