SWIM KIDS HAVE LOADS OF FUN, LEARN VALUABLE LESSONS TOO
The forecast had called for morning showers. At high noon on Wednesday, though, the hot sun shines brilliantly on Forest Lawn pool as kids jump into the water with joyful abandon.
Still, a little precipitation wouldn’t scare away kids like Madison Hagan.
“I just love to swim,” the nineyear-old says moments before joining her friends at the southeast Calgary outdoor pool. “I don’t care if it’s raining.” That’s an assertion Makena Hind can back up.
“It doesn’t matter what the weather is, they’ll be here,” says the 26-year-old lifeguard and instructor at Forest Lawn pool. “These kids just love to swim.”
Over the lunch hour Wednesday, Hind is watching over a special group of kids before the pool opens at 1 p.m. for public swimming.
“Our main goal is to teach them water safety,” she says of her young charges — who, for one hour, get not only some free lessons, but also lunch.
“It’s been my most rewarding experience as an instructor.”
It’s also an endeavour for which Hind has good reason to be proud. This is the first year Hind and her team of swim instructors are offering the Swims for Lunch (calgary swims for lunch. wordpress. program.
The low-income neighbourhood where it’s offered has its share of kids who are newcomers to Canada, many of them members of single-parent families or households where both parents work during the day.
“We want the kids to be able to go to a pool and have a good day,” says Hind’s partner in the project, Olivia Graham.
“We start from the beginning, teaching them how to float, how to tread water — and to understand the risks, whether that’s a pool or any body of water.”
The need for such rudimentary skills was highlighted this past Friday, when an 11-year-old Calgary boy fell into the Yoho River and was swept away by the strong current. His body was recovered Tuesday.
According to the Canadian Red Cross, an average of 296 Canadians die each year from water-related incidents, with the highest number of deaths occurring among men and boys aged 15 to 34; non-swimmers or weak swimmers make up the bulk of all water-related fatalities.
Each Monday, Wednesday and Friday over the lunch hour, Hind, Graham and a small crew of volunteers tend to anywhere from 30 to 65 children, between the ages of seven and 17.
“I learned to swim at a very young age,” says Graham, a 19-year-old former competitive swimmer and Hind’s partner in the venture.
“When I was a kid, my parents would drive me to practice early in the mornings.”
Both Hind and Graham know this pool — along with the community that surrounds it — very well. Hind has been working at Forest Lawn the past six years, Graham the past three.
“A lot of the kids swim here all day and they would ask us how to do a float,” says Hind, a sociology major entering her final year at University of Calgary this fall.
“Their enthusiasm was high, but their skills very low — and very few of them had lunch or even snacks for the day.”
What followed were several months of researching how to start up their initiative, which included reaching out to community partners such as social service agencies, the Calgary Food Bank and Brown Bagging It For Calgary Kids.
During that hour, both Hind and Graham are on the clock for Benchmark Projects, which operates Forest Lawn as well as Stanley Park outdoor pool, but they’re joined those three days every week by a handful of loyal volunteers.
“We could always use more volunteers,” says Hind, who notes that they require one adult for every six kids.
They also gathered input from their young charges, kids like Madison. “I came one day when it was really raining and they were having a meeting,” the youngster says proudly. “I had some ideas on how to make it more fun.”
Such feedback set the stage for special days like Taco Day, along with learning games in the pool. “We want to help develop their confidence, both in the water and out of it,” Hind says of the kids, some of whom have learning disabilities and emotional issues.
“But they are just the greatest. They really want to be here and learn.”
Madison is proof positive that their approach is getting through.
“My mom said that in a few years I could be a lifeguard,” says Madison, who adds she’d probably be sitting at home if it weren’t for the Swims for Lunch program. “And when I’m older, I’m going to be a doctor.”