To take trip of her life, young Georgia cancer survivor must first learn to swim

ATLANTA - Kiki Troutman, an 8-year-old childhood leukemia survivor, has spent months at the East Lake Family YMCA in Atlanta learning to swim.

"(The thing) I love about swimming is I get to get in the water, and my favorite thing is water,"
Troutman says.

8-year-old Kiki Troutman of Decatur, Georgia, is learning to swim before going on a Make A Wish Foundation trip to Hawaii.

And the rising third grader needs to be comfortable in the water because of where she and her mom and big brother are headed this weekend.

"Snorkeling, we’re going snorkeling," Teneaski Troutman smiles.

But, they are not just going snorkeling; they are going snorkeling in Hawaii, thanks to the Make A Wish Foundation.

"I’ve never been," Kiki Troutman says. "And I want to go somewhere where I’ve never been before."

Getting here, days away from the biggest trip of her life, has required hard work and patience.

The trip was delayed by the pandemic.

Then, once it was back on, Kiki’s mom signed her up for swimming lessons at the Y, starting with the very basics.

Troutman comes to every practice, watching her daughter from the edge of the pool.

"And I sit right there, monitor her, and I see the progress every time she does it, every week," her mother says. "She’s getting faster. She’s moving her bones. And she does, she does real good when she’s in the water, and she’s swims like a little fish."

Kiki Troutman, who has been in remission since 2019, is part of a national push by the YMCA to teach more children of color how to swim and be safe around water.

A 2019 study conducted at Ys by the USA Swimming Foundation and the University of Memphis , found 64% of Black children cannot swim, compared to about 40% of white children who cannot swim.

The CDC says Black children drown at 3 times the rate of white children.

A lack of access to public pools and affordable swimming programs are both factors.

Darius Moore, aquatics director at the Andrew and Walter Young Family YMCA in southwest Atlanta, says there is also a long-standing fear of drowning in the Black community.

"I will say that it is fear that has been passed down from generation to generation," Moore says. "I am, I must say, I am the only one in my family that does know how to swim."

But, Moore says his parents pushed to learn to swim.

At 8, he began taking lessons at the same YMCA pool where Kiki Troutman is learning to swim.

"Just to be sitting here as the aquatics director, as an African-American male, is a bit overwhelming," Moore says, his voice filled with emotion. "It’s very exciting."

Moore says learning to be comfortable in the water will not only keep Kiki Troutman safer, it will expand her world.

"Being able to go to the beach, being able to, you know, hang out with their friends, not having that fear any more of the water is a great thing to have, he says. "I’m very proud of her.

Moore says the YMCA of Metro Atlanta offers affordable swimming classes and scholarships.

"I want to see more of us in the pool," Moore says. "I want us to be able to get over that fear of the water. And it starts with us. It starts within us."

Sunday, June 18, 2023, after years of waiting, Kiki Troutman will be Hawaii-bound.

"I get to go in the ocean and see the fishes," she smiles.

Her mother cannot wait.

"I’m so proud of her," Troutman says. "She’s gonna do it, she’s gonna do it, she’s gonna do it!"