Second Grade Students Learn to Swim

WILDWOOD – Second grade students at Glenwood Avenue Elementary School had a swimmingly good time as they learned water basic skills and water safety June 11.
As part of a brand-new initiative to teach students to swim and be safe in the water, over 60 students made their way to the Montego Bay Resort for a fun-filled morning with members of the Wildwood Beach Patrol.
“The emphasis of the program is self-preservation, floating, kicking and paddling,” said Wildwood Beach Patrol Chief Steven Stocks. “Students were also taught how to help others – reach, throw and go get help.”
The impetus for the program came when school officials learned of researched that showed many children who lived in urban communities did not know how to swim.
“These children live on an island,” Stocks said. “We also have large water parks and many pools in Wildwood. Being safe and comfortable around the waster is an important part of growing up in a seashore community.”
Over a period of four weeks, children were taken to the Montego Bay Resort in small groups for an hour-long lesson. Pool time was donated by the resort’s owner, Adam Youschak. Beach patrol lifeguards Jack McGinnis and Pat Buckley served as instructors. John Lynch, director of the Lunch with Lynch program, was also part of the initiative.
Instructors, along with second grade teachers Erin Ridgeway and Cathy Elsey, took to the water as students sat at the pool’s edge. As they entered the water, students held on to the side. As the lesson progressed students went from simply putting their heads under water and blowing bubbles to floating to doing the doggy paddle. The lesson ended with a spirited relay race of the newly-minted swimmers using their newly found skills by zipping across the pool on boogey boards.
“I learned how to swim,” exclaimed 8-year-old Norkis Lopez. When asked about her favorite part of the lesson, Lopez responded, “Floating. It feels like you’re in bed.” She added that now that she knows how to swim she hopes one day to become a lifeguard.
With the program’s maiden voyage completed, school officials hope to institute the program on an ongoing basis next year. According to Ridgeway, program officials hope to increase the number of swim lessons from one hour per student to six to eight hours.
“We hope to make it an annual event,” said Mike Marano, Montego Bay manager. “We like to help our community. These kids wanted to learn to swim and we enjoyed having them.”
“The hope is that the program will grow to allow every second grader to receive a beginner swimmer certification next year and to sustain the program for many years to come,” said John Kummings, Glenwood Avenue Elementary School principal. “The need is obvious, as our students live on an island.”