It started back in 1999, in a small residential swimming pool located in Summerfield, NC and was originally called Anitra Carignan doing business as, “Swim Fanatics.”  Anitra began teaching small group lessons in the beautiful, newly built neighborhood of Henson Farms, just outside of Greensboro, to local residential kids and their invited friends & family. You have to remember that in 1999, there were very few swim programs offered in Greensboro and the surrounding towns that taught swim lessons by professional swim instructors that were trained and certified to teach. Additionally, she didn’t believe in using flotation belts to teach small children how-to-swim, (As use of these”teaching aids” had become all the rage in local gyms and swim programs). To survive and thrive, Anitra had to offer exceptional quality instruction, coupled with unparalleled results. Proving that learning how-to-swim needed proper technique and safe practices, not buoyancy supported gear, her program took off.  In 1999, Anitra was unique in that the service she was offering was a relatively new approach to teaching how-to-swim. She set off to grow her company and she began to change the way parents viewed swim instruction. Hire a professional, not just a life guard became her new focus.

Although she is known lovingly by so many swimmers as Ms. Anitra. In 2003, Anitra married and became Anitra Fulton. By the summer of her wedding, Anitra had over 100 swimmers visiting her at the summer pool for weekly lessons.

Anitra also benefited from the geographic location of her part-time job as a swim instructor working for GCAC, during the school year months. GCAC, was a swim team program that was centrally located in Greensboro on the historical Campus of Greensboro College. People would move their child’s lessons from Summerfield to Greensboro over the winter, just so they could continue with Anitra. When GCAC closed it’s doors in the fall of 2006, Anitra mapped out a plan with the college to begin hosting “Swim Fanatics” programs year round. By the Spring of 2007, her program had grown so big she decided to incorporate and begin hiring and training swim instructors to teach the “Swim Fanatics” way. Thus, Swim Fanatics, Inc was born and was quickly being recognized by many local families as a thriving and growing swim program. In the summer of 2007 Anitra hired Sasha Kuznezov, a New York swim coach and native, to coach and co-develop a swim team for Swim Fanatics. Team SFSC registered with USA Swimming and started off their first season (September 2007) with about 60 team members and over 200 swim lesson participants.