In keeping with their mission of community service, civil and social action, the ladies of Sigma Gamma Rho Sorority, Inc., have embarked on a noble mission that has the potential to save lives. In partnership with USA Swimming, the Greek letter organization has been hosting swim clinics around the country for five years. The initiative – called Swim 1922, in tribute to the sorority's founding year – was created to address the astounding rate at which young black kids drown every year.

The alarming racial disparity in fatal unintentional drownings for black kids in the U.S. may be attributed to a number of factors. First off, municipalities with predominately black residents often don't have public swimming parks. Also, the historic segregation of African Americans from swimming pools may have set off a generational chain of events that still affect communities of color nearly 60 years after the end of Jim Crow laws. Whatever the root cause of the disparity, the fact remains that black children drown at 5.5 times the rate of other children, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

Photo: USA Swimming

Sigma Gamma Rho is taking a hands-on approach to create positive change.

"Parents are taking their kids to pools and the beach, and so many of them don't know how to swim," Barbara Sawyer, president of the Baltimore chapter of Sigma Gamma Rho, said in an interview with the Baltimore Sun. "Anything could happen while they are in the water."

At the Gaffney Fitness Center in Fort Meade, Maryland, the sorority holds clinics to teach mothers and children how to swim. "It's about water safety and saving people's lives," said Dawne Stanton, president of the Silver Spring alumni chapter of Sigma Gamma Rho.

Kudos to the ladies of Sigma Gamma Rho for putting their mission into action.

Swim 1922

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