Miriam Lynch - Executive Director of Diversity in Aquatics & Champion of Water Safety Education

When Dr. Miriam Lynch witnessed the heartbreak of a drowning tragedy, it sparked a transformative journey from a business-savvy graduate to a crusader for change in the realm of water safety. On our latest episode, Dr. Lynch, the Executive Director for Diversity in Aquatics, narrates her inspiring story and the birth of a movement. She doesn't just buoy our spirits with her passion but also educates us on the critical intersection of learning to swim and competitive swimming, particularly in underserved communities. Tune in to discover the ripple effect of Diversity in Aquatics' mission, from the first splash of water safety days to the current waves of progress that have expanded community awareness and created new opportunities in the aquatic field.

The fear of water can feel as vast as the ocean itself, but in embracing the ebb and flow of life, we find strength and community. Our discussion with Dr. Lynch plunges into the strategies that help individuals conquer aquaphobia and the extraordinary significance water holds in our lives, especially showcased by the rich aquatic landscapes of Northern Virginia. As we celebrate International Water Safety Day, we're encouraged not only to share our water encounters with the world via the #IWSD hashtag but also to join hands in safeguarding our indispensable water resources. Whether you're someone who cherishes every drop or you're just starting to test the waters, this episode is a must-listen, inviting you to become a guardian of the deep blue and a proponent for an inclusive aquatic world.

Transcript

Speaker 1: 0:31

My name is Dr Miriam Lynch and I'm the Executive Director for Diversity in Aquatics, and what we are? We're a mission-driven organization that promotes water safety, but also the opportunities in aquatics, and what we're really focused on is communities that have been mostly historically marginalized from being represented in this space, and so, because we know what the statistics are, that is our focus, and we promote both in the same sense.

Speaker 2: 1:00

I love that. Tell me how you got into this industry, Like how did you come about this? We want to know the story.

Speaker 1: 1:06

Yeah, it was quite a journey I did not expect to take. I graduated from Howard with a business degree and was in the consulting world for a very long time and then had the opportunity to come back home and I had an opportunity also to be with my coach, pete Morgan, and during that time, while I was coaching with him with Nations Capital, there was a drowning in DCC and it was a four-year-old girl. In the summer she was found at the bottom of the pool and it was just the pool was just so crowded that they didn't notice that she was on the bottom for so long. And that story just really hit me while I was coaching because I just didn't understand, like how could we have this prominence of swimming? I grew up swimming, you know, since the age of four, and I was part of one of the best clubs in USA swimming, and right here in northern Virginia we are considered like a swimming capital because of our summer league teams and neighborhood pools, and I just didn't understand how could we, with the swimming culture, have a drowning like that? And so I just was, you know, more inquisitive to it and trying to find out more information and found out wow, there really isn't a way that we're merging the gap between competitive swim and learn to swim. We aren't creating a better bridge for that and for our community.

Speaker 1: 2:35

And so I had an opportunity to work with DC public government and we organized our first water safety day and I had an opportunity to bring my kids that I was working with at NCAP to be my volunteers, and then we had over 150 people families participate in this water safety day and then from there I just said, well, what else can we do? And that's when I got an opportunity to join this organization Diversity in Aquatics. It was just a network. I got to find out scuba divers who are invested, interest in water safety, triathletes, harbor police and more. That helped to really create a larger community of aquatics.

Speaker 1: 3:15

All of us that are driven as a part of we know what the statistics are, we know that there is a disparity in our communities and we want to do something and we want to show it through our passions of aquatics. And that's what that opportunity and what diversity in aquatics has fully done and how we've been able to grow it. But that's how I got started was just because I had a light within and I was like we have to do something. We want to make a change here.

Speaker 2: 3:40

I love that you took that initiative for you to be the one to help make that difference in your community and just help others so that things like this don't happen and so that more people can be aware. So I love that.

Speaker 1: 3:53

Yeah, it was just. You know, and I will say I have to credit the people surrounding because once we just made like hey, you're a triathlete, can you show your triathlon club during this water safety event, it was just. That was where we created that community and all of us coming together. So it wasn't just me by myself, but just all of us collectively that wanted to just have an avenue, to be a change maker, absolutely.

Speaker 2: 4:21

And then can you tell me a little bit about marketing that you do with your company? How are you getting the word out? How are you educating people, whether it's through Instagram, youtube videos website? Tell me a little bit about that.

Speaker 1: 4:34

Yeah.

Speaker 1: 4:34

So the way that we market is mostly that we promote water safety. So our water safety, not only we're promoting it through our social media channels and talking about all the ways to be safe around the water through social media, but we're also going into schools. It's our chance to go into schools, talk about water safety but then also talk about our own career paths into aquatics to show that, hey, it starts with being water safe, but it doesn't end with just knowing the rules. Right, we want kids and families to be able to know that, hey, first I'm aware of the rules, but I want to participate and learn more. I want to learn to swim and then, wow, once I learn to swim, then I can become all these things.

Speaker 1: 5:23

And so, with that, we do an event called International Water Safety Day each year, and it's on May 15th and wherever it falls in the year, we have an opportunity to connect with our communities and our whole network of people. We have over right now I think I last saw like 4,000 people that are connected to our network that all have the chance to be activated and utilize their own passion for aquatics to talk about water safety on that day. With that, historically, we've reached over a million people with the water safety message, and just last year, we were in the city of Chicago and worked with Chicago Public Schools, which is, I believe, one of the top five largest school districts in our country. Wow. And we got to reach over 300,000 kids with the water safety message on May 15th, international Water Safety Day. And so when we do that, we are now moving our communities to first being aware of what it means to be water safe and then also, in the same breath, talking about what are all the different pathways that you could take to be water safer learning to swim, engaging in aquatic activities, keeping your being also environmentally aware too, right. When we're talking about you know Chicago's right there on Lake Michigan, and so being aware of the power of Lake Michigan and all the aspects of that as well, right. And so that's what is where we go through and how we market and how we reach more of our community with that water safety message. But I will tell you we can do better, right.

Speaker 1: 7:06

And so what our thing is is that, how do we get to more, and that's where we're trying to figure out now. Is that how do we further make the conversation, just as we're doing our other preventative methods. So we're talking about gun violence, we're talking about vehicle safety, poison control. Those are all things that are done without when, in the school right, we're talking about ways to be safer.

Speaker 1: 7:32

We want water safety to be a part of that conversation as well, and so what we're doing also is policy work, and so we're working with people who write policy, who are in control of policy, to see how do we get water safety not only just on one day, but throughout the year, right, and it's part of that conversation.

Speaker 1: 7:55

So when you're in your health and PE class and you're learning like, ok, I should look both ways when I go across the street, or I should make sure that I wear a seatbelt when I'm in my car, that you're also having the conversation when you're in near or around water, saying oh wait, there, let me reach or throw, don't go. Let me, which means like I'm going to reach instead of trying to go into the water to go get a ball that fell in the water or a friend that is in need, or just knowing the steps of like wear a life jacket when you're on the boat. We're trying to have that being a part of our schools and our dialogue within when we're talking about the larger safety message yeah.

Speaker 2: 8:41

No, that's so important because some of the things you mentioned, I'm like wait a minute, yeah, I don't think about that. I like, yeah, wear my seatbelt, but like, okay, reach, don't grab, or like pull or whatever, like I don't think about these things. And so I definitely do think that, with the new generation coming up, and we bringing that awareness to them is definitely going to help and we'll see an impact in that for future generations and the ones below them as well.

Speaker 1: 9:05

Exactly, and that's what we wanted to be intergenerational Like. Just think about when we have the conversations with our families, right, we know, now with vehicle, the conversation was much different with my great grandparents. Now, with vehicle, the conversation was much different with my great grandparents, my grandparents, my parents to me, about vehicle safety. Right, we want the same conversation to happen with water safety, because far too long we've thought of water safety as, oh, if I avoid it, I'm safe, right, yes, or that won't happen to me. I don't think of water safety.

Speaker 1: 9:38

Even the bathtub, that's something that's also water safety, right, and what we're finding out is that the largest group, that is, drowning, unintentional deaths, the highest risk, are one to four year olds. And look, I have a nephew. He is now a beautiful almost two months old. Oh, congratulations. And these are things that now I'm like yes, these are the bath time, leaving a child unattended, having a water, a bucket of water near the house. It only takes a second for drowning to happen, and we think drowning's like in a pool or a large lake and you're like flailing arms and all these things are happening, but drowning is really silent and it happens to our most vulnerable population.

Speaker 1: 10:25

And so when we're having conversations that are intergenerational about what it means to be safe and what our awareness should be. That is what's going to help change those statistics as well, and it's also going to help us to build more policy advocates as we move forward, because now we're having the mindset okay, what kind of things am I voting for in my community to make my community safer? And so I want bicycle lanes, right, but I also want swimming pools. I also want fences around pools. I also want fences around pools. I also want things that temperature free temperature gauges so that the bathtubs not too hot or doesn't get turned on by accident, or toilet seat covers so that a child doesn't accidentally fall. We want those to be a part of that as well.

Speaker 2: 11:18

That's really great and very informational. I'm sure some of our listeners might be intrigued to know more about this. What kind of resources do you offer when you do these workshops with schools? Are you sending them to like? Are you working with pools to make something educational for them on, maybe, just how to swim? Yeah, things like that.

Speaker 1: 11:39

So we have the privilege of working with the American Red Cross very closely Right now. We just got done with working with them on some curriculum through their Whale's Tales programs. There are very good programs that are out there that have a number of resources. So we're not trying to recreate the whale, we're just trying to provide more access to those resources because we know we're in communities that others may not be in, and so that is us as an access point.

Speaker 1: 12:10

Follow us on all of our social media platforms, whether it is on Instagram, facebook or more, and contact us, because there's so many different sources that we're pervy to, not only in the American Red Cross Pool Safely. We're also connected to USA Swimming and so many entities US Water Pool and more that have so many resources that can build for what you need in your community, because what we understand at Diversity in Aquatics there's not one size fits all in this space. Every community is a little bit different in the needs that they have. Right, us in Northern Virginia, pools are not an issue, because we have pools almost in every neighborhood right.

Speaker 1: 12:56

Yes, but if you go to a more rural area where swimming isn't prominent, pools are an issue, and access to pools are an issue, even in some urban areas where they have shut down pools, and that has to do with the resources, and so each community has something that's in need, but we have such a wide array of resources to help meet the needs and what you see in your community.

Speaker 2: 13:22

Okay, thank you for sharing that. That's great information there that you offer like a little hub of information where, like, you need this with water, you need that with water, I'll help you with that Exactly. I love that Now who are you outside of helping your community overcome this struggle with some water?

Speaker 1: 13:40

Oh, so outside of that I'm a public educator. I'm going on year 20 in public education.

Speaker 2: 13:46

Congratulations for that.

Speaker 1: 13:47

Thank you, I love it. I love what I do and working with schools, especially with our educators. So that is my outside of this work, because for us in diversity and aquatics we see just those connections right, and I've had the privilege of wearing both hats within this organization. And so outside of that, I am also a swimmer, so I swim, I love to be in the water, I want to float in the water, I want to be in the ocean.

Speaker 2: 14:15

So you're basically Little Mermaid.

Speaker 1: 14:16

I, yes, when Little Mermaid came out, I did do the rocks and do the song where the waves come up behind you. Yes, yes, that was yes. If I had the friend group that wanted to join me, we would have had that whole production. So I'm that girl in the water and I just I have a beautiful family that I get to, as right now we're just enjoying my little nephew. He is the first grandchild of our families and so that is also a part of my world too.

Speaker 2: 14:48

Love that for you and so that is also a part of my world too. Love that for you. And now, if you could leave our listeners with one message, it could be in regards to water, it can be in regards to life in general.

Speaker 1: 14:58

What would that message be. We can all be part of the change, and I want all of the listeners to know that you too are part of the message of water safety. I think that for all of us, we all have our, our affinities to the water and how we approach the water and our relationship with the water and what that means to us. Share that, share even your fears for the water, because we can't move forward unless we all have first the conversation and then start to question and start to see how can I make a difference for others in this space.

Speaker 1: 15:34

So, if you have a fear for water, why do you have the fear for water? What has happened to you in the water? And then, what do you want to do to change that so you have a better relationship? Because, guess what, our earth is 70% covered by water. You're going to be around the water in some point. Look at us. We're right here in Northern Virginia and the Potomac River, we've got the Chesapeake, we've got all these waterways, and even our history here is surrounded by water, right? And so how do we build that relationship so that we're not fearful for it and that we're empowered to make a change?

Speaker 1: 16:10

And so join us on International Water Safety Day, tell us your water story hashtag IWSD so we can repost you and share your story, along with so many others that are in this space. And guess what? If you love the water, share that too and go out and be a part of the community of water lovers and jump into the pool and be safe while you're doing it and then also promote that safety with your community for those who don't have that relationship with the water. And so that's where we all come together. We're all a part of being a water advocate. It is not one or the other, but let's do it all together.

Speaker 2: 16:50

That was beautiful. Thank you so much for being here today.

Speaker 1: 16:53

Oh, thank you. Thank you for having me. This is just amazing.