The YMCA of Metropolitan Dallas recently received a substantial contribution for its water safety programs.
Photo courtesy of the YMCA of Metropolitan Dallas.
Last week, representatives from POOLCORP, the largest worldwide retailer of pool equipment, visited the Lake Highlands Family YMCA to deliver donated goggles, towels and sling bags to about 80 summer campers. POOLCORP also donated $95,000 to the YMCA of Metropolitan Dallas to provide free swimming lessons and support lifeguard training.
Swim lessons will be provided free of charge for summer campers who, after a state-mandated swim test conducted at the start of camp, are determined to need additional training.
“The swim test consists of you having to be able to swim the length of the pool independently, or you have to swim in a life jacket. So rather than just put the kid in a life jacket, we are intervening and putting them in a swimming lesson,” said Jennifer Pewitt, the associate vice president of aquatics and special needs for the YMCA of Metropolitan Dallas. “And we call it going green. So our goal is to get those kids to the point where they can pass the swim test, so that not only are they a safer swimmer, but they get to enjoy the pool without the life jacket.”
In addition to the swim lessons, the gift will allow the YMCA to support its no-cost lifeguard training program. Each year, the organization hires over 300 lifeguards around Dallas.
The lessons and training are a part of the YMCA’s Safety Around Water program. Launched in 2016, the SAW program aims to reduce childhood drowning deaths in the U.S, where drowning was the leading cause of accidental deaths in children aged 1-4 from 2018-2023, according to the CDC.
“Research and data tells us that swimming lessons reduce their child’s risk of drowning by 88%. That’s not if the kid becomes a proficient swimmer, that’s just if the kid has the lessons,” Pewitt said. “So we know that when kids drown, they do so right below the surface, it’s totally silent. In an overwhelming number of cases, they are being supervised by mom or dad, and the drowning happens just a few feet from the wall.”
That’s why swim lessons at the Y typically begin with getting children comfortable in the water, Then, the organization utilizes techniques like the ‘Jump, Push, Turn, Grab’ method, which trains children to effectively tread water and return to the safety of a pool wall when they unexpectedly find themselves in a body of water.
This was the third year in a row POOLCORP donated to the Y as part of its SWIMPACT! program. SWIMPACT! was launched in 2021 to support the Y at a national level in its mission to provide swim lessons.
While the swim lessons supported by the gift are only available for summer campers, the Lake Highlands Family YMCA also provides morning and afternoon swim lessons. Scholarships are available, as are free swim tests.
“We would love for every kid to have the opportunity to learn to swim when they’re a preschooler,” Pewitt said. “But we know that that doesn’t always happen. And so it’s figuring out, how do you meet these kids where they are?”
