In the US, an average of 3,500 to 4,000 people drown per year. That is an average of 10 fatal drownings per day. Drowning remains the second leading cause of unintentional injury-related death for 5-15 years old, and there are major racial and socio-economic disparities in who learns to swim.

I am thrilled that for the first time ever, we are offering free swim lessons to our students, starting with a pilot group of 25 11th graders who cannot swim. My school is located in the South Bronx and over 95% of our students qualify for free and reduced lunch. We believe that providing swim lessons is saving lives.

We launched our program last week and found that of 12 girls in the lessons, three had to sit out because they had their period. If female students miss a week of swim classes every month, they will significantly behind their male peers and culturally, tampons or menstrual cups are not an option for all students. I would like to provide each of the students with a period bathing suit to ensure that they do not miss any more lessons.

I'm hoping to purchase 12 of these bathing suits from Amazon: Beautikini Period Swimwear