By Felicia Thomas-Lynn

Holly Davenport faces the same prospect each summer.

Davenport, director of the Milwaukee Community Sailing Center, which offers free lessons to low-income, primarily African-American youths, struggles to fill the slots.

The reason: Many can't swim.

A combination of factors - including parents who can't swim, limited access to pools and even a lower socioeconomic level - are largely influencing a minority swimming gap, according to a new survey.

Almost 60% of African-American children living in metropolitan areas can't swim, nearly twice the rate of white non-swimmers, the survey says.

John Cruzat, national diversity specialist for USA Swimming, the governing body of competitive swimming in the U.S., which commissioned the survey, said when the agency looked at the field of competitive swimmers, it lacked diversity.

"Communities of color typically didn't gravitate to the sport," Cruzat said.

That, coupled with staggering statistics that show African-American children drown at a rate nearly three times that of white children, made finding the reasons for the swimming gap more critical, he said.

Locally, from 2004 through 2007, five out of the six children who drowned in Milwaukee County were African-American.

Garry Henning, grandfather of one of those victims, Quadrevion Henning, said that although his 12-year-old grandson knew how to swim, his friend, Purvis Virginia Parker, 11, who drowned alongside him, did not.

"They concluded that he had drowned trying to save Purvis," said Henning, executive director of the Quadrevion Henning Parker Foundation for Child Safety and Awareness.

The USA Swimming survey, which included responses from 1,772 children ages 6 to 16, found that 31% of white children, 58% of African-American children and 56% of Hispanic children surveyed were considered at-risk because of their lack of swimming skills.

It also noted that parents were a key influence on their children's swimming habits. At least 65% of parents with non-swimming children couldn't swim themselves. As family income increased, so did respondents' swimming ability, with 67% of parents of non-swimmers reporting an annual household income of less than $49,999.

Only 29% of parents of swimmers reported an income of less than that.

Wanda Whitfield, whose son, Takiyah, 4, takes swimming lessons at the YMCA, said she had checked into the cost of private lessons, but that they were too expensive.

"If parents know the resources that are out there, they will see that they can be offered for free or at a low rate," Whitfield said.

Henning and other community leaders cited the lack of swimming facilities near central city neighborhoods as a key reason for the gap. Some wading pools have been closed because of low attendance and budget cuts.

Some agencies have come up with partnerships to get urban youths into pools.

"If you are not proactive, it is not going to just happen by itself," said Tom Schneider, executive director of COA Youth and Family Centers, whose agency has a partnership with the Milwaukee Yacht Club.

"Swimming is an important life skill," he said. "Not only does it open up the opportunity for fun, but you never know what will happen. If you don't have pools in the neighborhood, where are they going to learn?"

Davenport said the sailing center also came up with a creative solution to help boost the number of children involved in its programming.

In order to enroll in sailing lessons, younger children are required to swim 25 yards and older ones must swim at least 75.

So the center now teams up with the Northside YMCA to offer swimming lessons, for a nominal fee, to those interested in the sailing program.

"The situation is dire," Davenport said. "We could take far more children, at least 50 more kids. It's the swimming component that stops those children dead in their tracks."

The Y also has expanded its community outreach efforts, said Kirsten Hasdal, the branch's aquatic director, who last worked at a Y in the suburbs.

"I came from a branch where they were fighting to get into lessons, and I come here and you have to find creative ways to get people into the pool," said Hasdal, who added that the Y now offers swimming lessons to children in its day care and day camp programs.

Tahirrah Taylor, whose 4-year-old son, Rahjae Walker, has participated in swimming lessons at the Y, said she aims to break the cycle.

"I don't swim. I have a fear of the water," she said. "I want him to be aware of water safety. I don't want him to have the same fear."

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