Local swim academy hopes to provide swim and water safety instruction to underprivileged kids
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REXBURG – Teaching kids how to swim is a labor of love for Dodie Beavin and she’s hoping to provide that opportunity for more kids through a new grant.
The Rexburg woman teaches students year-round out of her own swimming pool at 5060 West 5200 South. She built it in 2019 when she launched Pirates and Mermaids Swim Academy, which gives swim lessons to hundreds of kids every year.
Beavin is applying for a grant from the USA Swimming Foundation to provide free swim and water safety instruction to underprivileged kids. The goal is to make it available to kids during the school day. The grant would pay for a bus to bring them to Beavin’s academy and get taken back to school at the end of the lesson.
Beavin tells EastIdahoNews.com the grant amount is contingent upon local school districts’ support of and participation in the program.
“I’m asking for $200,000 to service 2,000 students,” Beavin says. “I can get a very small portion of the grant and I can offer free swim lessons to underprivileged students, but then I have to prove that they are underprivileged.”
Without participation from local school districts, Beavin says the grant amount is likely to be around $7,000, which would serve about 70 students.
She’s spoken with Jefferson County School District, as well as Madison and Sugar-Salem. So far, Beavin says only Sugar-Salem has expressed interest in being part of this.
“We did the pilot program with them last fall. I had two of their junior high P.E. classes bus out here twice a week,” she says. “Sixty percent of them were uncomfortable jumping into water that was above their head.”
As a member of the American Red Cross, Beavin says the organization has a goal to eliminate the number of drownings nationwide. There are more than 4,000 drowning deaths in the U.S. every year, according to the latest data from the Centers for Disease Control. As of 2024, the Idaho Dept. of Health and Welfare reports the Gem State ranks ninth nationwide for drowning deaths.
For a state with the largest amount of navigable whitewater river miles in the lower 48 — which Idahoans enjoy recreating on every year — Beavin says the high number of drownings shouldn’t be happening.
While Beavin says many kids in surrounding school districts live in homes that don’t qualify for Medicaid or food stamps, they also don’t have enough money for “extra stuff,” like swim lessons.
“These same kids are going out with their friends, jumping off rocks into rivers and they don’t know how to tell if it’s safe. These are the ones who are drowning,” says Beavin.
While there are many in-school swimming and water safety programs nationwide, Beavin says she is the only one in Idaho pursuing this goal. It’s a program she believes will change people’s lives.
Beavin has already been approved for an $8,200 grant to fund the transportation portion of the program. The more participants there are in the swimming program, the more likely she is to be approved for the full amount.
“They’re deciding how much they’re going to give me based on the number of participants for the 2025-26 school year,” Beavin says.
She’s calling on local school districts to support her in this effort so she and her team can provide swimming and water safety instructions for as many students as possible.
To register or learn more, email dodie.beavin@gmail.com. You can also visit the website or Facebook page.