ST PETERSBURG, Fla. — A Bay Area swim instructor is honoring her African American heritage with a challenge to teach 1,803 young people how to swim this year.

“So I have a goal to teach 1,803 students how to swim. And I got that number from the Igbo Landing mass suicide, which happened in 1803,” swim instructor Kym Finch said.

Igbo Landing is a site in Georgia where African captives refused to be sold into slavery, so they drowned in the water instead. It’s what Finch says is powerful piece of history that she plans to use to save the lives of children by teaching them to how to swim.

Drowning numbers for young people from the Florida Health Department show why this challenge she started is so crucial.

According to the Florida Health Department, African American children between 5-19 years old have a higher chance of drowning compared to their white peers.

Finch said those numbers are part of the reason she made swim instructing a career. She also wanted to be able to teach children who look like her how to swim in the neighborhood she grew up in, in South St. Pete.

Finch also teaches adults how to swim. She taught her grandfather, Freddie Lee Crawford how to swim before he died last year.  Crawford was a part of the Courageous 12 — a group of black police officers whose actions sparked sweeping changes in the St. Petersburg Police Department in the 1960s.

Now, Finch is hoping to make a difference while doing what she loves.

Finch said she hopes to inspire more African Americans to become swim instructors too. But she says that will have to start by having pools in African American communities, specifically South St. Pete, open year round like they are on the north side of the county.

She’s also hoping local governments will start providing more funding for those swimming lessons. In the meantime she says she’s finding her own sponsors to make sure those who can’t afford it can still take those lifesaving lessons.