New York City Council leaders announce $1.5M expansion of WaveMakers program to teach 3,000 more second‑graders to swim

At a pool at Lehman College, Speaker Menon announced an expansion of the WaveMakers swim‑instruction program, saying the city will allocate an additional $1,500,000 to provide roughly 60,000 free swimming lessons aimed at about 3,000 more New York City second‑graders.

The push to scale the program is intended to advance swim safety and equity after the City Council passed a bill mandating free lessons for second‑graders but lacked full funding for universal implementation. "We are expanding that program and allocating an additional $1,500,000 of funding to the WaveMakers program," Speaker Menon said, calling the change "truly transformative." The announcement included a ceremonial check presentation and on‑site swim demonstrations with students.

The program is a public‑private partnership led operationally by Asphalt Green and supported philanthropically by the Grama Foundation. "In our first year, our goal was to teach 2,000 kids to swim, but we exceeded that by 50%, teaching 3,000 kids," Jordan Brackett, CEO of Asphalt Green, said, describing partnerships with CUNY, the DOE, Common Point Queens and the YMCA. Dana Zucker, CEO of the Grama Foundation, said the foundation sees WaveMakers as a model for combining philanthropy and government: "We believe that learning to swim should be a right, not a privilege."

Council Member Shekhar Krishnan, who helped found the program, said organizers targeted neighborhoods with limited pool access and used philanthropic seed funding to pilot WaveMakers when city funding was insufficient. "Every New York City child deserves to learn how to swim," Krishnan said, calling the program a matter of both safety and racial equity.

Council Member Eric Dinowitz, chair of the Education Committee, highlighted school‑based implementation and workforce benefits: as more students learn to swim, organizers said they expect a future pipeline of lifeguards and instructors. Speakers described lessons as delivered through school partnerships and invited schools interested in participating to contact program staff.

Speakers offered slightly different totals for the program's prior reach during remarks: organizers noted the pilot exceeded its first‑year goal (3,000 in the first year), and other speakers described cumulative reach in the thousands; the event transcript contains varying counts. The announcement did not include a formal City Council vote or an ordinance number; officials described the $1.5 million as funding allocated to scale the existing WaveMakers pilot.

After brief remarks and questions about logistics, organizers presented the ceremonial check and accompanied students for pool demonstrations. Officials said the expansion aims to correct access gaps in communities with historically limited pool availability, but they did not provide a timetable for enrollment outreach across all districts or a detailed per‑student lesson schedule.

The event concluded with partners encouraging schools and community groups to reach out to program staff to join future cohorts.