Thursday morning The La Porte County and The Michigan City Family YMCA’s each held a National World Largest Swim event to help kids learn swimming and safety skills.
Across the country and globally more than 29 countries and their thousands of children and staff participated in an event that promoted the importance of water and pool safety.
Inspiration behind this event began in 2010, as The World Waterpark Association recognized the need to educate and motivate children on how to swim safely.
“We have been holding this event at the La Porte branch and Michigan City branch for two years now, and everyone comes together for a 30 minute or more swim lesson,” said Michelle Shirk, Development Director of the La Porte County Family YMCA,
Before the larger swim lesson, the La Porte YMCA held a swim lesson for the infants to 3-year olds, so everyone had a chance to be a part of today’s national celebration.
Hannah, a lifeguard at the Y, believes that teaching children to safely swim and respect the water is important.
“We not only live close by to a body of water, but if something happens to them we would all feel a sting of responsibility for not teaching them,” she said.
As swimmers gathered around the registration table to begin lining up for the pool, the lifeguards and staff members were hard at work getting the pool area safe and ready. The large pool has a shallow and a deep end; today the kids were sectioned off to the shallow area.
The La Porte County Family YMCA teaches a “reach-throw-do-not-go” policy that is implemented in all of their aquatic programs. Staff and volunteers explained and demonstrated the policy, and two different ways that an individual could help instead of do unintended harm during a water emergency.
“Kids automatically see someone in distress and want to jump in and save them, but by doing this you run the risk of creating another victim,” Shirk said. “We work with them and teach them to let somebody know, get some emergency assistance started, and reach or throw an item to the victim.”
All kids participated in the activities this morning and learned some basic water safety training tips, including ways to safely dive, blowing bubbles, flutter kicks, breathing training, how to float on their backs, treading water, and basic front crawl strokes.
“Even though this our I first time here, I think it is really important for my kids to learn how to swim, but also get involved in the La Porte community.This is an easy, fun way, and so far it has been an awesome experience.”
To find out more about the global and national World’s Largest Swimming Lesson you can visit http://www.wlsl.org/ or visit http://www.lpymca.org/ for any questions on specific programs Michelle Shirk and the La Porte County Family YMCA offers.
