Swimming lessons help Atlantic City kids succeed

ATLANTIC CITY » Shirley Tucker sat on the side of the pool at the Martin Luther King Jr. School Complex one May Thursday afternoon watching two of her young great-grandchildren bob up and down in the water.

This is the first time her great-grandchildren, among dozens of other city kids, have been given the opportunity to learn how to swim in the resort town and how to save themselves if ever caught in rough waters, she said.

For free.

“My kids don’t know how to swim,” said Tucker, 70, of Atlantic City. “They need this. They really, really do.”

As part of a new pilot program in the city dubbed “Whelan’s Whales,” hosted by the owners of the Brigantine Aquatic Center, more than 115 students in kindergarten through eighth grade come to the pool at the MLK school during the week to learn how to swim.

The inspiration for the group and the name came from the late state Sen. Jim Whelan, a former Atlantic City school teacher and mayor who was also a lifeguard and swim coach in the city. He died in August at age 68.

“What we work on with beginners is mostly endurance,” said Robin Taylor, owner of the Brigantine Aquatic Center who runs the program with her daughter Sari Carroll. “Rather than start to work on technique with children that really can’t swim, we work a lot on endurance to get their legs strong enough to hopefully save themselves.”

With drowning being the third-leading cause of death for children ages 5 to 14 worldwide, according to the World Health Organization, Taylor said she takes it as her responsibility to provide a program for children to learn to swim and to teach them the “realities” of the water.

There were 188 drowning deaths reported in New Jersey from 2014 to 2016, according to New Jersey State Health Assessment data. About 1 in 5 people who die from drowning around the country are 14 or younger, according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

And rip currents were prevalent along this coast last summer. Friends Kaliy-ah Hand, 16, of Atlantic City, and Ramon Quinn, 15, of Pleasantville, went for a swim June 15, 2017, at Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Boulevard, were pulled into the ocean and drowned.

In July, a 2-year-old was found dead in a Galloway Township home swimming pool. A week earlier, a 4-year-old died days after being pulled from the water at Lake & Shore RV Resort in Ocean View, Dennis Township, and a 6-yearold drowned in a pool at Nantucket Inn and Suites on Ocean Avenue in Wildwood.

“It’s all of our responsibilities. It takes a village,” Taylor said. “There’s no reason for an island that’s totally surrounded by water to have children who don’t know how to swim and to be drowning.”

At the start of the 30-minute session, the kids arrive, grab a flotation belt, hop in the pool and work with the instructors, who are mostly volunteers. They’ll do about eight to 10 lengths of the pool, going back and forth in exercise and learning how to get their face wet without being scared.