Photo Credit: Vance County School Board
Every day, about 10 people die from unintentional drowning, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Of these fatalities, two are children aged 14 or younger. Drowning ranks fifth among the leading causes of unintentional injury or death in the United States. For every child who dies from drowning, another five receive emergency-department care for nonfatal-submersion injured, the CDC states.
“Save Our Kids” is a joint program offered through the Henderson-Vance Parks and Recreation Department and the Henderson YMCA in North Carolina. The goal of the program is to educate second graders in all 10 elementary schools in Vance County on basic swim instruction and water-safety education. With help from the county school board, 550 to 600 children participated in the program in its first year, and another 216 have gone through the lesson program since the beginning of this year.
To participate, each school group takes five separate field trips to the aquatic facility closest to the respective school for a 45-minute lesson. Students are instructed by American Red Cross certified lifeguards and water-safety instructors with a ratio of 12 students per instructor with several volunteers on the side. Each session presents a new lesson modeled toward the goal of being safe in and around the water. The swimming lessons include practicing water-safety skill and swim instruction based on the participants’ skill level.