The founder of Black People Will Swim is taking her aim at stereotypes

Black People Will Swim, based in Queens, N.Y., teaches hundreds of New Yorkers of color, with limited pool access, how to swim each year.

Five years ago, Paulana Lamonier made public her goal to change the lives of countless people in the New York City area. 

That goal also ended up changing her life. 

The former collegiate swimmer at York College, in the Queens borough, tweeted in 2019 that she wanted to teach 30 Black people to swim. Lamonier, the daughter of Haitian immigrants, knew that learning to swim as a child changed the trajectory of her life. She met her best friends and learned the importance of perseverance and hard work over taking shortcuts.

“Swimming has given me a sense of purpose, a sense of drive,” Lamonier, 32, said.

Once she quickly surpassed that first goal, she set an even loftier one: to make swimming more affordable for everyone, particularly for Black children and adults. Two years later, Lamonier created Black People Will Swim, both a business and mantra, to do just that.

https://www.nbcnews.com/news/nbcblk/black-people-swim-expands-queens-new-york-rcna151538

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