FORT GREENE, NY. The start of any new school year typically includes a retelling of summer. What did you do? Who did you see? Where did you go? There’s excitement which comes from an unexpected adventure or relationship—an experience often burned into one’s memory for years to come.

Last summer I didn’t travel anywhere memorable. I made a semi-annual trip to northern Vermont for the cows and my wife’s extended family, noteworthy only for debates about what’s up at the U.S. southern border (even though our nation’s northern border—with Canada—was less than ten miles away). No, my life-impacting summer adventure happened right here in Brooklyn at Long Island University’s Steinberg Wellness Center, approximately 500 feet from my front door.

Noteworthy participants in my excellent summer were kids I’d never met before: Nikosi and Ever and Connor and Jaxten; Inara and Sterling and Kristen and Meilan and Jazara. Brooklyn Swims!, a pop-up swim program that ran last July and August, was filled with them and many others. Kids who could swim and loved it. Kids who couldn’t swim… and loved being in the water more than expected.

It also had to do with great people like Max and Gregory, Deniz and Kate, Benni and Otis, Kevaughn and Irakli. They were instructors for the program and all had a huge impact on the 170+ boys and girls who came to the LIU pool as many as three times a week. The site where the Sharks—mascot to the NCAA Division 1 swim and water polo program—roam turned out to be an ideal location for children denied access to typically free summer learn-to-swim programs due to a shortage of lifeguards.

[Yes, Brooklyn DOES Swim!]

These are the facts; the emotions involved were more complicated. As the organizer for an effort that included local activist Perry Williams, Assembly Member Phara Souffrant Forrest and many others, I felt the responsibility to deliver a quality swim experience in a very short time span—two hours a day for four to five weekdays over four weeks in July and August. That local kids and their parents responded so positively to what we offered is a testament to the quality of the experience as well as the current paucity of swim options in Brooklyn.

There’s another factor fueling my zeal for kids to get safely in the water. Seven years ago, Magnus Murkoro, a friend and frequent collaborator, drowned while on a family vacation. This was a life-altering experience for me and many others; Magnus was a vibrant and exceptionally compassionate individual whose passing stays with me many years later. That he was an accomplished soccer athlete and coach dedicated to his community did not spare him a needless death. The only thing that would have was a basic swim / water safety class, something, all of us can support.

Against this freighted background, the absolute joy of swimming exhibited by kids like Nikosi and Kristen, all of four years old, and Connor—just a year older—was inspirational. That and Jaxten’s and Meilan’s determination in pushing through instruction to find a consistent swim stroke. Or Jazara, who delighted in demonstrating how accomplished she was in the water. And she was. Then there’s five-year-old Ever, who in his first time at LIU would not go near the pool; after a couple of weeks, he not only was swimming around like the rest of the participants, he was comfortable enough to swim with his mother on a vacation to Florida.

These and many more mental snapshots—Sterling eying the pool nervously but then being transformed in the water; Inara willing herself across the pool’s deep end—remain fixed in my mind. That and a responsibility; I am committed to making as many Brooklyn children drown-proof as possibly. I owe that to Magnus and all those families who put their trust in me. If I can it will mean that the first summer after Covid-19 was almost fully dispersed will remain as memorable as any I’ve ever experienced.

Photos Courtesy Tony Davis (Instagram: 420yates)