Bloomington-Normal YMCA, the American Red Cross of Central Illinois and the Boys & Girls Club of Bloomington-Normal are working together again to keep kids safe in the water this summer.
This is the second year the trio of organizations have partnered for a summer swim and water safety program, though the Red Cross has had variations of this program across the country for over a century.
“Each of the kids are divided up [into] beginner, intermediate and advanced swimmers, and we test them and talk through the water competency points through here,” said Tim Ready, senior director of aquatics at YMCA. “We get them as competent as we can in the water to where if they were to fall in a body of water, they’d know exactly what to do—they won’t panic and go into that active drowning state."
Before the kids learn water safety in the pool, they get water safety lessons in a classroom. The students will go through the Red Cross’ WHALE Tales program, which covers water safety in various settings like pools, lakes and waterparks.
The water safety lessons don’t stop with personal safety. Kids are also taught what to do if someone around them is drowning. Everything in the program, from what is taught to who is taught, is done with the intent of lowering the number of preventable or accidental drownings.
“Our goal was to provide water safety class and lessons to kids who don’t usually get the ability to do these classes,” Ready said.
This year the free course expanded from 30 to 50 youths, who are connected to the Boys & Girls Club. The partnership stemmed from a desire to serve communities of color, attempting to address racial disparities in swimming ability and drowning deaths in the U.S.
“The Red Cross says 83% of the time when a kid is in a structured lesson, it will prevent a drowning," Ready said. “What we’re seeing in our facility is that swimmers are coming back more confident. More people are passing our swim test and have a good time in the water.”
Earlier in the season, YMCA and Red Cross also partnered with Bloomington Parks & Rec to provide water safety and drowning prevention courses at O'Neil Aquatics Center, forming what the city has called a "water coalition."
The program at the YMCA concludes Aug. 1.
