A Message From Our Founder, Lily Durkee
During the Black Lives Matter movement, I was thinking of ways that I could make a positive difference in my community. I was inspired by the BLM statement released by Immersion Research and realized that I could focus my efforts on a community that is very important to me — the paddling community. I started whitewater kayaking when I was 9 years old, and I grew up almost always being the only Asian or non-white face on the river. It was something I had accepted as normal. Then, I had this sudden realization that it didn’t have to always be that way. I had a vision of a group of Black, Indigenous, and People of Color (BIPOC) floating down the river together, huge grins on their faces. I also knew that the paddling community had always supported me, so I felt confident that I could make this dream a reality. Diversify Whitewater was co-founded soon after by myself and Antoinette Lee Toscano in June 2020.
Diversify Whitewater hosted two free community paddling events in that first year in Northern Colorado and supported over 100 participants with the help of numerous volunteers and local sponsors such as Rocky Mountain Adventures. In 2021, we expanded our events model nationally, and we successfully held 9 events in four states and hosted 360 participants. We are now looking ahead to summer 2022, where we are introducing three levels of engagement so that we can support a wider variety of programming: Signature Events, Event Sponsorship, and Paddling Scholarships – see our events page for more info. We are so excited to see all of your smiling faces out on the water with us at our events this year!
