Making a Splash for Safer Swimming

How do we break a tragic cycle and create a safer, happier community all at once? We are delighted to feature another guest blog post from Michael Kiefer, highlighting the incredible impact of our recent partnership with the Monroe Family YMCA. Backed by a $25,000 grant from the CFMC, this story beautifully illustrates how free swim lessons are doing more than just teaching a life skill, they are creating a safer future for Monroe families. 

It’s a regret that haunts my life – I can’t swim.

Too embarrassed to admit it, I navigate around a lifesaving gap that, with childhood lessons, could have been closed in a matter of weeks.

As a non-swimmer, I’m powerless in those moments when the people I love the most need saving the most.

The water could be a place that takes lives.

Drowning is the leading cause of accidental death for children ages 1-4, second for children ages 5 to 14, and third among teenagers, according to the Centers for Disease Control (CDC).

A study by the American Red Cross (ARC) shows that more than 70 percent of those who drown each year in the U.S. are adults, and the percentage of drownings rises with age. About 4 in 5 children in households with incomes below $50,000 have no or limited swimming ability.

That same study shows that roughly 40 million Americans, about 15% of the population, don’t know how to swim, and more than half have not taken a single swimming lesson.

“A child who learns to swim today becomes an adult who can save a life tomorrow. By equipping youth with water safety skills, we’re preventing tragedy and creating a ripple effect of knowledge that can be passed from one generation to the next. We’re doing more than just creating safer families; we’re creating safer families, safer communities, and safer futures,” said Amanda Schmitz, Financial Development Director, Monroe Family YMCA.

A national USA Swimming Foundation (USF) study shows that 40% of White, 45% of Hispanic, and 64 % of Black children have few to no swimming skills.  Research points to limited access to swimming facilities, swim lessons, and public pools, which have historically been unavailable to minority populations, as factors in the disparity. Fears are passed down generationally.

If a parent doesn’t know how to swim, their child is 88% likely not to know how to swim as well, according to USF.

This is where free swim lessons for youth offered by the Monroe Family YMCA, made possible by a $25,000 grant from the Community Foundation of Monroe County, worked to change all that.

The grant was designed to provide free swim lessons to youth in economically challenged neighborhoods, equip them with water-safety skills, reduce drowning risk, and boost their confidence in aquatic environments.

“When a child receives swim lessons at no cost to their family, they gain far more than a safety skill; they gain a sense of capability that carries into every corner of their life. It’s an investment that compounds across a lifetime and echoes into the next generation. This is what the grant funded, not just swim lessons, but a better future, according to Valerie Orr, Community Foundation Executive Director.

The grant also addressed a shortage of lifeguards by providing foundational lifeguard skills, first aid, and CPR.

“What gives me the most pleasure in this job is watching families swim together. The smiles, laughter, and joy on their faces never get old. Water has a way of bringing out happiness in people like nothing else,” said Zach Bolan, YMCA Aquatics Director.

The pattern repeats itself.

Children who learn to swim become adults who swim. Adults who swim enroll their own children in lessons.

The tragic cycle of non-swimming – passed quietly from parent to child – is finally broken.

It’s a gift that lasts generations.