BROWN DEER, Wis. — Seven siblings and cousins of a Butler teenager who drowned in Pewaukee Lake last summer are learning to swim — a skill he never had the chance to master.
WATCH: Butler family turns tragedy into lifesaving lessons through a gift
Messiah Beamon-Perry, 17, drowned June 29, 2025, in Pewaukee Lake. The Hamilton High School senior had just returned from a college visit when he went to the lake with friends who planned to swim out to a buoy. Messiah went under and never resurfaced.
"As a grandmother, my main concern was my babies being safe in the water, alongside the water, wherever there is water," Felicia Beamon said.
His siblings and cousins are now receiving free swim lessons at the Rite-Hite Family YMCA in Brown Deer, funded by the local chapter of Sigma Gamma Rho sorority.
Messiah's grandmother said that before the accident, swim lessons were too expensive for their family of six children.
“I thought swim lessons would be perfect,” Beamon said. “We were blessed to receive that gift.”
Dr. Aronica Williams-Murry is a charter member of Sigma Gamma Rho’s Iota Psi Sigma chapter and the chief medical officer for Milwaukee Health Services. Williams-Murry said the sorority wanted to step in and help the family.
"With drownings, we know there are approximately 4,500 unintentional drownings in the U.S. every year, and that equates to 11 per day. So those rates are astounding," Williams-Murry said.
The rate of drowning is even worse for Black and brown communities. According to the CDC, Black and brown children are four times more likely to die in drowning accidents than their white peers. Williams-Murry said that disparity is why the sorority funded the swim lessons for Messiah's family through the YMCA of Metropolitan Milwaukee.
"It is inequities in access to swim lessons. This is just one more area of inequities for Black and brown communities. So what we are doing is bringing that access to the community," Williams-Murry said.
Messiah's family said he was always the first to help others — especially when it came to taking care of his younger brothers and sisters. They said this effort feels like another way he is doing just that.
"I think he would have wanted this, and I think because we are doing this, we are in some sense honoring him," Beamon said.
The YMCA of Metropolitan Milwaukee offers free adult and child swim programs for people who cannot afford to pay. A link to that program is available here.
This story was reported on-air by a journalist and has been converted to this platform with the assistance of AI. Our editorial team verifies all reporting on all platforms for fairness and accuracy.
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