By Chris Cooper

“We’re not trying to find the next Michael Phelps; we just want to help kids feel confident in the water.”

That is the goal of the Safety Around Water course, according to Nic Legere, Associate Executive Director of the Jennersville YMCA.

Drowning is the second leading cause of death in children ages 5-14 years old, but most drowning deaths are preventable, which is why the free course is being offered at Jennersville and five other branches of the YMCA of Greater Brandywine.

Formerly known as Splash, the nationwide program teaches basic swimming skills and water safety to grade-school children as summer approaches, because June, July, and August are the months when most drownings occur.

The Jennersville YMCA holds the two-day course for second- and third-grade students in the Avon Grove, Oxford, and Octorara school districts, and the staff has been happy with the turnout.

“This is the largest year we’ve had in a while, and it’s fantastic to be able to have this many kids feeling more comfortable in the water,” said Katie Doochack, Aquatics Director. “We’re focusing on the very basic water safety skills. Should anything happen, they will have some knowledge and a little less fear in the water.”

The Safety Around Water course is sponsored by Jennersville Regional Hospital, Phillips Mushroom Farms, West Pharmaceuticals, and NSM Insurance of Conshohocken. The YMCA of Greater Brandywine anticipates that more than 1,800 students in Chester and Montgomery counties will benefit from the course this year.

Led by trained instructors, the students learn the following skills at five safety stations around the pool throughout the two days:

• Back floating
• Basic swimming
• Jump/push/turn/grab (jumping into the water, and learning to push off from the bottom, and return to the side of the pool)
• Water safety
• Boat safety and life jackets

An important benefit of the program is simply providing free access to a supervised swimming facility to those who otherwise may not have it. And once students complete the two-day course, they become eligible to take their swimming to the next level with eight, 45-minute sessions of free lessons, a separate benefit that is exclusive to the Jennersville YMCA through the Rebekah J. Hostetter endowment.

“An extra bonus is that a lot of these kids will have the opportunity to come back and take swimming lessons with us for free, so they can work a little bit more on the skills,” said Doochack. “The kids who are truly beginners or still fearful of the water will have a chance to get a little more confidence.”

Providing students with access to a supervised pool, instilling confidence in them around the water, and encouraging them to continue with free swimming lessons are the three main objectives the Jennersville YMCA is achieving with its Safety Around Water course.

Legere said that meeting those objectives is especially critical for the children he refers to as “the scary population” – those who can’t really swim but think they can. Speaking for all those involved in the program, he knows that “as long as we help even one person, it’s all worth it.”