Please, Please Learn How to Swim

[ericadawn16]

It's summer again so I'm making this plea again.

Please learn how to swim. If this is impossible, please make sure the children in your life know how to swim.

Pasco is coming up with a budget and public pools aren't in it. "It seems like so many subdivisions have pools and people have pools," Commissioner Pat Mulieri said.

That's not my impression but whatever, I guess when you and all your rich friends have pools, you tend to forget about the poor.

You see, those public pools offer low cost swim lessons. Mine were just 25 dollars 15 years ago or so. The poor is most at risk. They're more likely to be swimming in less than ideal conditions: rivers, lakes, ditches, abandoned pools. If they get in trouble, they might have a buddy to save them...or they might not and definitely no lifeguard.

Last year, a study was released from USA Swimming that 69% of black children and 58% of Latino children have either no or low swimming ability. Drowning is the leading cause of death among those under 5 and Florida has twice as many deaths as the national average, but taking away a source of preventing that number from being even higher? GREAT idea!

(sigh)

I understand how it's better to close a pool than a library. However, I wrote them about trying to establish partnerships between the YMCA, Boys & Girls Clubs and available pools. Really, swimming should be a required course like Algebra or Critical Thinking.

So, while you can, please make sure the kids around you can swim and if you can and you feel you're not a good enough swimmer, take some lessons yourself. CPR is also a good idea.

Please also this summer, you might have abandoned houses in your neighborhood. If they have pools, check on them from time to time to make sure all gates are properly secured and that no one's been hopping the fence. If it has water, it could be irresistible to kids and if it doesn't, then it'd be irresistible to skateboarders...yes, I'm old, that's what we called them in the 80s when we all had boards. Either way, an abandoned pool can be very dangerous and we don't want anyone getting hurt or killed.

Comments

[ayaneva.livejournal.com]

I need to learn how to swim. I keep meaning to but never quite get around to it. :(

[ericadawn16.livejournal.com]

Do you live close to Northern Liberties?
http://www.phila.gov/findrec/RecCenterDetails.aspx?ID=805 (http://www.phila.gov/findrec/RecCenterDetails.aspx?ID=805)

It says they offer adult lessons. Otherwise, all I could find in Philly were classes offered by receation groups like YMCA or Drexel or UPenn and they seem quite pricey.

[ayaneva.livejournal.com]

That's the thing. I work at the gym at UPenn and can get the lessons for free. I just haven't. :x

[ericadawn16.livejournal.com]

CAROLE!

This needs to be TOP of your list!

[ayaneva.livejournal.com]

I knoooow. I'll look into it! In fact, I'll do it Monday (won't have a chance tomorrow). I'll call membership and ask about it.Need to buy a new bathing suit though. I left mine wet in a plastic bag and rusted the metal buckle on the belt. The rust got all over the cloth. :( I think the salt from the sea water is what did it because it wasn't even in the bag for that long.

[miss-bekahrose.livejournal.com]

I whole heartedly agree, and... I'm not sure if this will be of any help to you whatsoever, but, here in Australia we have a thing called 'Kids Alive, Do the Five.'

It's about preparing children - especially young children - for dealing with water and water safety, especially in and around home swimming pools and public pools.

http://kidsalive.com.au/

It was founded by an Australian athlete (Laurie Lawrence) and is aimed at making sure children (and parents) are safe around water, reducing the risk of drowning. :)

[ericadawn16.livejournal.com]

This is really cool...it is also off-line, right?

[miss-bekahrose.livejournal.com]

Not too sure what you mean by "off-line", but that could be because I am both sleep and caffeine deprived.

But if you mean, is it something that is available outside of the internet, then the answer is a resounding, yes.

It is available all year 'round here. We are, after all, a country that prides itself on it's water culture - beaches, surfing, swimming... all these things play a HUGE part of the Australian lifestyle. But the campaign is most often at it's strongest during the September through to April period, when the weather is warming up.

The program is taught at schools (both swimming schools and regular, every-day schools - especially as most schools these days have their own swimming pools on-site and incorporate swimming lessons as part of Early years development education), and there are tv campaigns and ... Yes. LoL. (Sorry, this comment got longer than I intended).

[ericadawn16.livejournal.com]

Oh, I'm so glad and I wish Florida could have something similar. As you can guess from a peninsula, we have a lot of water: ocean, lakes, rivers, springs, etc.

[madkatstar-pir8.livejournal.com]

We've been having our funding on our neighborhood pool cut for years, and now it's really bad. When we started going to it years ago when I was a kid, it had multiple life guards for the shallow end, the deep end, and the kiddie pool. It also had a snack stand where you could buy refrigerated candy bars and get sodas from a machine. We even had a diving board, and the pool was cleaned three times a day. Then, a couple years later, the diving board went. Then the snacks. Then a couple of the life guards. And it was only cleaned once a day.

Now, we have NO life guards and it is rarely ever cleaned, but the pool is still open. How that's legal, I don't know, but now kids just come and go without supervision. It's horrible and I'm scared someone is going to drown. Ugh.

[eldarwannabe.livejournal.com]

I have to say that I agree with all of this 100%. My mother worked as a summer camp lifeguard and I was raised in a household where you learned how to swim without nose clips and ear plugs and goggles -- you're in the water and you know how to handle yourself just fine. It's one of my few buttons in life, and I encourage everyone I meet who can't swim to go learn ASAP.

[iceshade.livejournal.com]

[aquaseamage.livejournal.com]

Swimming is required here freshman year in high school ... or it was when I was in school. We had 1 semester of Swim, which I did very poorly at. Its the ONLY class I ever got a D in, but then my mother through the years had made me terrified of deep water (or any water) so it was very, very scary going into a real swimming pool when my only experience was like in a few scant inches of water. I did learn the flutter kicking, but I found the whole 'breathing over the shoulder' bit very hard and clumsy. Not did I feel 'comfortable' floating in the water!

I just simply stay AWAY from deep water, pools, etc. I certainly go down by the Lake to LOOK at the water - it is very beautiful and scenic, but that is all I ever do: LOOK at it. I'm certainly not dumb enough to go INTO the water. I'm sure there must be areas where it will pull you farther out? Besides, the Lake here is always freezing cold, even in summer. It will turn your skin red. I did once wade in it as a little kid (just up to my ankles right near shore with my Mom) and boy, it was COLD!!!

I really don't think one needs to know how to swim as long as you stay out of the water and use some common sense. Of course, there may be a freak flood or something, I suppose, that could catch a non-swimmer unawares but maybe one could avoid that, too?

But I do agree: Kids need constant supervision around pools and other bodies of water. They should be taught that water is dangerous and not to play IN or too close to the water. And to avoid storm drains / rivers during high flood stage. Many find looking at the flooded, fast moving water fascinating but one could fall in and get swept away. Sadly, this has happened to a lot of kids.