Our Earth Is 71% water!
Board Director Spotlight
Benadette Matthis wants you to take a Swim Class and a Water Safety Class. Everyone should take a Water Safety Class because there are many tips to know to stay safe around all types of water sources (in the home, pool, river, lake, and ocean).
Benadette is a passionate swimmer, a Red Cross ceSwim Safety Instructor and a Red Cross CPR/AED/ First Aid Instructor. She is an award winning educator having spent 30 years teaching secondary math in Boston public schools.
Interviews here:
Score:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rnHNeMCdiiY&ab_channel=SCOREMentorsBoston
Board Secretary Spotlight
Sarah Barrington began swimming by accident in kindergarten and never looked back. She swam competitively through college.
She has taught many adults and children how to swim and has always felt passionate about everyone having access to the ability to learn this life skill.
Currently she teaches Biology in Boston, is a Red Cross CPR/AED/First Aid instructor, and still swims in her free time.
We want you to be comfortable!
Board Treasurer Spotlight
Michele Goe is an avid athlete (tennis, golf, cycling, and hiking) and a new swimmer. She enjoys the salty beaches in New England from spring to fall. The best part of swimming for Michele is the joy of movement in water. For Michele, swimming is a family affair, both of her children are avid swimmers on the local swim team.
Michele had water anxiety for years prior to taking lessons as a new parent. In late adulthood she began to resolve her fear and learn to swim, motivated by a desire to break the 'curse' of women in her family who are afraid of water and cannot swim.
Michele currently does asset allocation research at a trillion dollar asset manager in Boston. Dr. Goe is the author of several academic papers on sustainability policy. She earned her doctorate in materials science from the Rochester Institute of Technology. Dr. Goe has master's and bachelor's degrees in engineering from the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor.
We want you to be safe!
Board Advisor Spotlight
Eileen Sullivan Shakespear is currently Associate for Staff Support at Boston Green Academy. In this role, she helps BGA teachers to think more deeply about the craft of their work and to examine and improve their practice. Though no longer teaching full time, she still loves the vitality, the human variety, beauty, and spunky spirit of city people and city schools. Prior to BGA, Ms. Shakespear taught English and Humanities in the Boston Public Schools for thirty-five years, the last 25 at Fenway High School where she initiated and directed Project Week and co-built the site based Urban Teacher Training Collaborative at Fenway/Boston Arts Academy with Tufts University. Ms. Shakespear has an undergraduate degree in English from Boston College and a master’s degree in Education from the University of London, Institute of Education. She is also a National Board Certified Teacher. When she is not working, Ms. Shakespear cooks, does coffee shop research, talks, argues and laughs with friends and family, reads good books, and enjoys great food and travel. Ms. Shakespear is an avid swimmer with MIT Masters Swimming organization.
Swim Freedom Annual Report 2025
2025 Overview
In our first 6 months, Swim Freedom has done very well. We realize that adults really want to know how to swim! They talk about going to beaches and cannot get in the water.! They talk about their anxiety. This is a real need in our community.
Our 2025 goal for swimmers was is 150 swimmers. By June we had 50 swimmers ( 8 adults and 40 children.) We currently have a 100+ wait list for adults and 40+ wait lists for children. We received 3 grants in the spring and 2 grants for this summer.. We hosted The World's Largest Water Safety Class in May in addition to doing several talks about Water Safety in our local community. This summer we are teaching and Red Cross certifying students in CPR/First Aid and we hope to continue to educate and certify our community in Red Cross protocols. We held a very successful community fund raiser with Antiono's Barcari's restaurant in Hyde Park.
1. Dedicated board members who can help us corporate sponsors.
2. Intern and volunteers to help our director with day to day operations.
3. Encourage and direct our swimmers parents and adults to earn Red Cross Water Safety and CPR/First Aid Certificates through swim freedom.