FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
One With The Water® Swim Team for Kids in Los Angeles Receives Generous Grant From Loaded Boards
Culver City, CA – 19 march 2014 – One with the Water®, a non-profit swim school dedicated to teaching life-changing swimming skills to kids and adults – many of them with disabilities or special needs – was honoured for its mission and achievements this March with a generous grant from Loaded Boards earmarked for the special-needs students and at-risk youth. The grant will cover a complete pre-competition swimming program of small-group swim practices, taking each child from no water experience to competition in small local swim meets, at the Culver City Municipal Plunge.
Loaded Boards, with over 98,000+ riders, has expanded its philanthropy to help give swimming lessons to under-served and at-risk youth to learn basic water skills that can prevent tragic incidents of childhood drowning. “Loaded Boards has made an impact on kids all over the southland by providing them with a means of athletic adventure,” says Loaded Board’s Founder Don Tashman.
Tashman was inspired to donate to One with the Water after seeing the benefits made from his own swimming lessons.
After taking swimming lessons with Coach Kenneth Rippetoe of One with the Water I was amazed at how quickly I progressed and was able to develop a great skill for exercising and maintaining my own health. Coach Kenneth’s passion for swimming spread to me and I wanted to share that with others as is our mission at Loaded Boards. Don Tashman, Founder Loaded Boards
One with the Water has offered the swim team places to the 75 children of CoachArt that participated in the free swimming lessons in the summer of 2013 provided by the Coast2Coast Swim Challenge. CoachArt is a non-profit offering free lessons in the arts and athletics to patients ages 6-18 living with chronic illnesses such as Arthritis, Cancer, Cystic Fibrosis, Diabetes, HIV/AIDS, Sickle Cell Disease and severe Asthma. Siblings of patients are also included in the program.
Grants and donations to One with the Water pay exclusively for pool space, insurance, and instruction for kids and families with limited financial means. Especially during the nation’s budget crisis, many schools lack the financial resources, personnel and facilities to provide athletic programs or physical therapy for children with special needs. One with the Water aims to fill that need, with specially-trained instructors and a nimble, low-overhead, non-profit model of operation.
Loaded Boards’ Don Tashman stated that at Loaded, “We enjoy what we do and we love to challenge each other and to challenge you. We expect you to challenge us back and we feel that this is the key to personal and communal growth. One with the Water is part of our community and we are very pleased to challenge children participating in One with the Water’s swimming programs.”
About One with the Water
One with the Water offers competitive swim training and year-round swim instruction for children and adults with a wide variety of skill levels, from total beginner to competitive athlete. In addition to their national-level competitive swimming skills, One with the Water’s instructors are trained to work with children and adults diagnosed with autism, Asperger’s, ADD, ADHD, sensory integration, anxiety, Down and CHARGE syndrome, auditory processing disorders and dyslexia and others. Founder and Head Coach Kenneth Rippetoe is certified by the American Swimming Coach Association Disability Level 3.
Since its founding in 2011, One with the Water has given out over $75,000 in scholarships to needy students and changed the lives of over 800 swimmers. One father – whose son is on the Autism Spectrum – reported that his son “really responded to [head Coach Kenneth Rippetoe], and looks forward to his class more than anything else right now. After the first class, he suddenly looked forward to and enjoyed swimming, as opposed to dreading it. He made huge strides, the biggest he has ever made, working with [One with the Water].”
Tax-deductible donations to the scholarship program of One with the Water, a 501(c)(3), can be made at the organization’s website: OneWithTheWater.org.
MEDIA INQUIRIES
One with the Water: 323.364.Swim (7946)
Website: onewiththewater.org
Facebook: facebook.com/OneWithTheWater
Twitter: @1withthewater
Loaded Boards:
Website: LoadedBoards.com
Facebook: facebook.com/LoadedBoards
Twitter: @Loaded_Boards
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Kenny is a baby Bottlenose dolphin, of the genus Tursiops, one of the most common and well-known members of the family Delphinidae, the family of oceanic dolphin. He is very playful and friendly and loves to frequently leap above the water surface. Kenny plays with water toys, enjoys making bubble rings, and plays well with other dolphins or other animals.