Beyond the Woodshop: Taking the Plunge

Six of our seven swimmers this summer

Through a new partnership with NSea Swim, Kids Making It students are learning to swim! This past summer, seven students participated in a weeklong course, with many of them still making a splash with continued lessons this fall.

This vital skill is just one of the many life skills we teach our students at Kids Making It. The “Beyond the Woodshop” blog section is where we will highlight these life skills and more.

Bringing this program to life took persistence. I’ve only been with Kids Making It for two and a half years, but I know this idea has been in the works for much longer. “We’ve tried to provide the kids with swim lessons for the last four to five years, but logistically just couldn’t make it happen,” says Julie Phillips, Kids Making It’s Associate Director. “It was a real group effort to make it happen.” Whenever our team talks about the life skills we want to teach our students, swimming is among the top of the list.

In July, seven students and one staff member who had never learned to swim took the plunge under the guidance of Tami Carpenter, Lead Instructor for the NSEA Swim Foundation (Northside Elite Aquatics). “Our goal is to make sure no child misses out on learning to swim because of cost or opportunity,” says Tami. “Partnering with Kids Making It helps us reach students who might never have had that chance, and they’ve made us so proud.”

Based at the Earl Jackson Pool in Wilmington’s Northside community, NSEA Swim is a local nonprofit dedicated to giving every child and adult the chance to learn to swim. The organization works to prevent drowning and increase water safety, while also making the sport of swimming more inclusive and diverse. Its programs include free swim lessons for children and partnerships with other community organizations to spread the word about water safety. In a coastal city like ours, where water is part of everyday life, that mission matters. Drowning is the second leading cause of accidental child death in the country, and learning to swim can truly save a life.

Tami Carpenter working with Chance the first week of swim lessons.

For many of our students, the biggest hurdle wasn’t learning the strokes. It was facing their fear. “They’ve taught me to conquer my fear of the water,” says Chance, a high school sophomore and Kids Making It student. “I feel like I’ve come a really long way, from being scared to even get into the water to now being able to swim almost a full length of the pool.”

I’ve had the privilege of working alongside Tami and her team from the very beginning, and watching our students’ progress has been incredible. On the first day, some of them didn’t want to step into the water at all. Now their confidence is through the roof. Swimming is a life-saving skill, but it’s also given them a boost of courage that I know will carry into the woodshop, the classroom, and every other part of their lives.

We are so grateful to Tami and everyone at NSEA Swim for helping our students build the skills and confidence they need to succeed, in the water and in life. Stay tuned to Beyond the Woodshop for more stories of our students growing in new ways.

That's it for this edition of Beyond the Woodshop. Please be sure to follow our blog to get the next edition!