Marin low-income swim program expands to adults

A Marin nonprofit partnership is expanding its free youth learn-to-swim classes and pool access programs to adults.

Jeremy Engman, executive director of Soma Aquatics Foundation, said existing programs for low-income youth in Mill Valley and Larkspur are broadening to include free classes for adults who have never learned how to swim or who can’t afford pricey health club memberships to gain pool access.

“We have so many young swimmers that do not have access traditionally to pools or to be able to learn how to swim,” Engman said. “Our first step is to level the playing field and make sure that everyone has access to at least know how to swim.”

Learn-to-swim classes for low-income families take place at  4:30 to 6 p.m. Sundays at Mill Valley Community Center and 1 to 2:45 p.m. Sundays at Redwood High School in Larkspur. Students are also eligible to receive free passes for open swim times and lap swims during the week.

The free classes at the Mill Valley Community Center started in 2021, Engman said. This is the first year that the program is also offering free classes for adults at the community center.

“It’s open to anyone in the entire county who wants to come,” Engman said, adding that “for the most part, it’s people in southern Marin.”

Southern Marin is where swimming has “historically been closed off to people who didn’t have the financial means to have access,” Engman said.

The free classes are taught by about 40 volunteer swim team members from area high schools, including Tamalpais, Redwood and Marin Catholic high schools, Branson School and Marin Academy.

Some of those high schoolers also teach or lifeguard in the summer at the weeklong swim camps at Tamalpais High School run by Soma Aquatics, Strawberry Seals swim team, Tamalpais Union High School District community education and Play Marin, a Marin City recreation nonprofit.

“Here at Play Marin we are thankful for our relationship with Tamalpais High School and Mill Valley Rec for opening up their facilities where we have had plenty of our youth has had the opportunity to receive swim lessons taught by Soma Aquatics,” said Paul Austin, founder and executive director at Play Marin, in an email.

“It is unfortunate that here in Marin City we do not have a swimming pool in our community,” Austin said. “As a community, we deserve to have the same facilities as the rest of the community here in Marin”

Engman, a 1998 Tamalpais High School graduate who has been swimming since age 5, started Soma Aquatics Foundation in 2011. The program began with classes during the weeklong summer swim camps at Tam High until after the pandemic, when the Sunday classes were added.

“I always took it for granted that if I fell in the water, I would be wet and I would get out and still be alive,” he said. “But that is not the case if you do not know how to swim.”

Lory Gonzales, a junior at North Carolina State University, was 12 when her family moved to Marin City and she heard about the free learn-to-swim classes run by Soma Aquatics. Marin City does not have a low-cost public pool and Gonzales’ family could not afford to join a pool membership for her at an area health club, she said.

She took the first class, and, after a bit, swimming caught hold. Soon thereafter, a swim teacher of hers told Gonzales she was ready to join Strawberry Seals swim team. Soma Aquatics provided her with a scholarship to enroll in the team, Gonzales said.

From there, Gonzales swam on the school swim team all through Hall Middle School in Larkspur, and then for four years on the varsity swim team at Tam High. She graduated in 2022.

By the time she was a junior at Tam, Gonzales was volunteering as a teacher at the Soma Aquatics free classes. She was later promoted to program supervisor — a position she returned to over the summer when she was back from college.

“It’s so rewarding to be able to see so many kids to have access to a pool,” said Gonzales, 19. “Giving back to the community is very rewarding. I’m forever grateful for the program.”

For Marin City mom Natasha Griffin Kambi, the Soma Aquatics program has been “an amazing opportunity for my daughter,” she said.

“When she started, at 6 years old, she held on to the wall of the pool and really did not venture out,” Kambi said. “She was apprehensive and timid at the water.”

Now, three years later, “she is confident in the pool and sure with her strokes,” Kambi said. “Soma has been life-changing, and I am so grateful we were introduced to them.”

Financing for the free swim programs comes from the city of Mill Valley’s parks and recreation department and the town of Corte Madera. Soma Aquatics also helps with the classes, as do a number of partners, such as Play Marin, Tamalpais Union High School District’s community education program, the Larkspur Community Foundation and others.

Engman said the current classes are at about 45 to 50 students per class, up from 10 or 15 children when he started the program more than 10 years ago.

The free programming for adults this year also included water aerobics classes, lap swims and family swims at Redwood over the summer. The free Sunday learn-to-swim classes at Redwood will continue this fall.

More information is at somaaquatics.com.