Keeping Cool – and Safe

SCHOOL’S OUT FOR SUMMER — and with temperatures hovering around 90 degrees this week, swimming is definitely a cool idea. But for many minority and low-income kids and families, there are too few opportunities to learn about safety in and near the water.

The YMCA is trying to change that. Last week through next week, about 40 swim instructors at eight urban YMCA pools are teaching personal water safety and rescue skills to 1,000 children who live in low-income neighborhoods.

Sixty-three people drowned in Minnesota last year, a rate of 1.22 drownings for every 100,000 people in the state. But the rate for blacks was more than double that — 3.15 drownings for every 100,000 people, according to Aquatics International, a professional journal for aquatics facilities planners. That rate was the highest in the country for any state, the magazine reported in 2005. (No figure for Minnesota’s Asian-Americans was in the report.)

"We wanted to do something to lower the number of drownings in Minnesota," said Shannon Kinstler, YMCA aquatics products manager for St. Paul and Minneapolis area facilities. "Our goal was to reach kids who otherwise wouldn’t be served with swimming-safety programs as the summer started."

The personal water-safety program began last week at the YMCA on St. Paul’s East Side and continues this week and next at pools in seven other neighborhoods, including Midway in St. Paul and South St. Paul. Hawkins Inc., a Minneapolis-based company that provides pool chemicals for YMCA pools, donated $20,000 to start the program.

The YMCA sought participants through community partners, including Project for Pride in Living, Sabathani Community Center, Neighborhood House in West St. Paul and the Division of Indian Work.

Participants attend five 40-minute sessions. The first acquaints kids with pool rules. In following sessions, instructors focus on the particular swimming hazards of pools, rivers, lakes and water parks.

Then, participants learn essential water skills, such as how to float and tread water, and how to put on a life jacket, jump into the water and swim while wearing one. They are told, "Reach, throw, don’t go" to help them remember rescue methods and to never try to rescue someone in trouble by approaching them in the water. Instructors urge them to call for help instead.

They learn the meanings of buoys in the water, how to handle currents and a shallow bottom that suddenly drops off, and to always swim with a partner. Instructors emphasize staying calm as they teach what to do if a swimmer becomes tangled in weeds or can’t see the bottom.

Instructors also talk about protection from the sun, boat safety, nautical names for parts of a boat and how to react when you are in a boat that capsizes.

All of the sessions funded are full. If other donors come forward, more sessions could be added "so we can help more kids," Kinstler said.

Ellen Tomson can be reached at etomson@pioneerpress.com or 651-228-5455.

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