Did you know?

According to the USA Swimming Foundation:

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*The goal of swim lessons is to make children SAFER in, on, and around water. We have over 70 bodies of water in our region.

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*79% of children in households with incomes less than $50,000 have little-to-no swimming ability.

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*10 people drown each day in the United States. 

Formal swimming lessons reduces the likelihood of childhood drowning by 88%.    

 

According to the CDC:

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*Drowning is responsible for more deaths among children aged 1–4 years than any other cause except congenital anomalies.

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*For persons aged ≤29 years, drowning is one of the top three causes of unintentional injury death (2). Previous research has identified racial/ethnic disparities in drowning rates.

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*The CDC analyzed 12 years of combined mortality data from 1999–2010 for those aged ≤29 years:

Among non-Hispanics, the overall drowning rate for American Indians/Alaska Natives was twice the rate for whites, and the rate for blacks was 1.4 times the rate for whites.

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*Disparities were greatest in swimming pools, with swimming pool drowning rates among blacks aged 5–19 years 5.5 times higher than those among whites in the same age group. This disparity was greatest at ages 11–12 years; at these ages, blacks drown in swimming pools at 10 times the rate of whites.

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*Drowning prevention strategies include using barriers (e.g., fencing) and life jackets, actively supervising or life guarding, teaching basic swimming skills and performing bystander cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR).

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*The practicality and effectiveness of these strategies varies by setting; however, basic swimming skills can be beneficial across all settings.

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