We’re excited to introduce you to the always interesting and insightful Melissa Wilborn. We hope you’ll enjoy our conversation with Melissa below.

Melissa, looking forward to hearing all of your stories today. Let’s kick things off with talking about how you serve the underserved, because in our view this is one of the most important things the small business community does for society – by serving those who the giant corporations ignore, small business helps create a more inclusive and just world for all of us.

Swimming is a majority and has been a majority sport. The program that has been developed with DeKalb Aquatics Swim team allows underserved and under represented youths to become involved in a majority sport. The program has offered free swim lessons for youth that cannot afford lessons. We run a recreational league to give kids a chance to try swimming, and we offer a year round team for those who want to compete at the highest level. It matters and it has always mattered that we allow anyone who wants to swim into our programs.

Melissa, before we move on to more of these sorts of questions, can you take some time to bring our readers up to speed on you and what you do?

I swam as a child starting in rec swimming and moving on to year round swimming. I went on to swim at Georgia State then transferring to swim at Auburn University. I was an academic All-American as well as an Olympic Trial qualifier. I started Coaching at 14 with the rec team and went on after college to year round swimming. We pride ourselves on the diversity of the program. The team is led by myself the only Head Black Female Coach in the state. We are the most diverse team in the state of Georgia and one of the most diverse in the country. I am very proud to be coming up on 30 years in the industry that we are surrounded by some of the largest teams in the country.

We’d love to hear a story of resilience from your journey.

There are 2 really dark times that I had to search deep in keeping the team going. The first one was after my father died and I had to step away to handle his affairs. When I returned several members of the team decided to switch to other teams. I had to rebuild basically from scratch. T

The other time was when covid hit and we had to get really creative to keep our client base and make sure the staff was paid. I was able to do some activities via zoom and then I found 2 outdoor pools that would allow us to train.

What do you think helped you build your reputation within your market?

Being honest and fair and continuing to stay relevant. I am not afraid to start from scratch and build the program from doing lessons, to rec league, and adding to the year round team.

Contact Info:

• Website: www.daqswim.com
• Facebook: DeKalb Aquatics Swim Team