ASHEVILLE, N.C. — Ian Quinn, an assistant coach at UNC Asheville, says swimming is a life skill. But not everyone has access to learn how to swim.

According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, in swimming pools, Black children ages 10-14 years drown at rates more than seven times higher than white children.

“If your parents don’t know how to swim and your grandparents don’t know how to swim, there’s a really high chance that you won’t know how to swim,” Quinn said.

After a Juneteenth celebration during the racial unrest of 2020, Quinn realized he wanted to create a positive impact through swimming lessons. 

“It made me question a lot of things, think about a lot of things, kind of how I could make an impact in the community that I live in, being just one person. And I realized that I can’t just, you know, dismantle racism by myself, but what I can do is, I can teach people how to swim,” he said.

Quinn and UNC Asheville’s women’s swimming and diving team work with the Youth Transformed for Life’s after-school program to teach kids how to swim at no charge. It’s a community effort.

“Sunshine Chevrolet is giving us the money to pay for lifeguards, caps and goggles for every kid. The caps are about $20 a cap and the goggles are close to $11 each, so it starts to add up,” Quinn said.

Fifty-eight kids signed up for the program, but 8-16 kids show up at a time for lessons twice a week with 8-10 student coaches.

“It’s not only good for the community first and foremost, but it’s also really good for the ladies on our team. I can just tell that they’ve really enjoyed this and it’s exposed them to experiences and people that they wouldn’t otherwise meet,” Quinn said.

“It means a lot. I’d be lying if I said I hadn’t cried tears of joy a few times. It’s taken just so long,” he said.

This goal is two years in the making for Quinn.

“I’m kind of still pinching myself that we’ve actually gotten to this point,” he said. “It’s worth it, right? It’s worth trying to improve the conditions of the people around you.”

He wants others to be encouraged to impact their community.

“If you have an idea and you feel like you want to make a difference, it doesn’t have to be some great, grand idea that incorporates all of this money and all of these people. Sometimes it starts with just one idea and committing yourself to making your community better,” he said.

Quinn and his team will be teaching lessons to kids at UNC Asheville in the spring.