Drowning is the 2nd leading cause of childhood unintentional injury-related death for children ages 1 to 14. More than one in five fatal drowning victims are children younger than 14. The “Splash!” Program is one that has been instituted at other Y’s across the nation. At the Valparaiso Family YMCA, the Aquatics department implemented its own “Splash!” This program was very successful in 2014 and the YMCA was awarded $1,950 by the Valparaiso Rotary to provide up to 100 children swim lessons with “Splash” again this year.
The program offers a fun, safe, and affordable place to learn to swim and water safety for children ages 3 to 14, including under-served and low-income children in our community. It is a free, week-long introductory swim lesson program providing an overview of basic swimming skills and water safety to beginner swimmers. It enables participants with no knowledge or experience in the water, and perhaps a fear of the water, to acclimate to a water environment and build confidence, helping them to swim and be safe in the water.
“The SPLASH program is great because it removes barriers to children getting swim instruction by being a free program. It allows us to teach some basic swimming skills and promote water safety to any child who signs up”, according to Chuck Gutzwiller, Director of Aquatics at the Valparaiso Family YMCA.
For more information about this program please contact our aquatics department at the YMCA.
