I Raised $144K For My Company ‘Black People Will Swim: Paulana Lamonier, 31, is teaching Black Americans to swim. According to a 2021 study by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Black Americans are 1.5 times as likely to die from drowning as white Americans.

Lamonier is the founder of “Black People Will Swim, a swim school for all ages based in New York’s Long Island.

She’s taught more than 150 students, raised about $144,000 in grants and crowdfunding campaigns and hopes to open her own swimming facility in the next three years.