The Full Story
Founded by Megan Didulo in 2022 and formerly known as Megan's Aquawesome Swimmers LLC, All-Inclusive Aquatics LLC was created with the goal of teaching safety skills in the water to children of all abilities.
While completing her schooling to become an Occupational Therapist, Megan worked as a Direct Support Professional and Paraprofessional for children with special needs. In these positions she noticed that the children she was working with did not get the opportunity to participate in physical activity as often as their same-aged peers. This inspired her to create an adapted physical education program for a local elementary school with the help of her classmates. She went on to collaborate with other OT students to research the positive effects of physical activity on children with disabilities. The research showed that by participating in physical activities, those with disabilities had improved mental and physical health.
Megan knew she had a passion for aquatics from working as a swim aide and transitioning to an instructor throughout her teenage years. She combined this with her therapeutic background to create aquatic curriculum for those with special needs. Upon graduating with her Masters of Occupational Therapy, Megan formed an LLC to promote swim lessons for those in the Omaha metro.
Since opening in April 2022, All-Inclusive Aquatics has successfully worked with almost 300 swimmers. Partnerships have been formed with programs such as the Down Syndrome Alliance of the Midlands and Autism Action Partnership to promote inclusion of those with special needs.
Pictured above is Megan with Elizabeth and Maggie Hope, All-Inclusive Aquatic LLC's first swimmers. Elizabeth was one of Megan's clients while she was a Direct Support Professional. With a diagnosis of Trisomy 9 Mosaic, she was one of the main sources of inspiration Megan had for creating the program!
These two girls continually motivate Megan to make the program better. Upon completing all the swim levels with All-Inclusive Aquatics LLC, Maggie joined a swim team. Megan saw how much Elizabeth looked up to her older sister and decided to create the same opportunity for her. This is how the Adaptive Swim Meet program was born. It allow kids with developmental and intellectual disabilities a place to compete safely. Swimmers get the chance to compete in a meet with the help of volunteers for increased safety and focus, while using flotation devices and adaptive swim equipment.
Upon graduating with her Occupational Therapy degree from College of Saint Mary, Megan knew she wanted to expand the services of All-Inclusive Aquatics LLC. To reflect the mass of opportunities the water allows for, she decided that it was time to begin offering aquatic therapy. She had completed research while in school detailing the effects of therapy and physical activity completed in the water. The conclusions were that children participating in regular aquatic therapy had better social-emotional and physical outcomes than their same-aged peers that did not participate in aquatic therapy.
As an Occupational and Aquatic Therapist herself, Megan decided she wanted to practice occupational therapy in the water. She knew from her research that the benefits of aquatic therapy were not solely for occupational therapy, but extended to other disciplines as well. With this in mind, she recruited a Speech-Language Pathologist and Physical Therapist to begin offering aquatic therapy services.
The broad services that this program offers; typical and adaptive swim meets, private and semi-private lessons, aquatic occupational, speech-language, and physical therapies, truly exemplifies the name and purpose of All-Inclusive Aquatics LLC.