HOUSTON – It’s pool season and with all the fun that comes with that, also comes some danger for inexperienced swimmers.
The YMCA of Greater Houston is teaming up with Reliant Energy for its Safety Around Water program, which teaches drowning and prevention skills to underserved Houstonians. The program teaches basic swim skills, such as floating and the front crawl, as well as CPR and survival swim skills.
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“Teaching your child confidence in the water is one thing but teaching competence in the water is another,” said Morgan Burns, Association Aquatics Director for the YMCA of Greater Houston.
This mobile program is taken to apartment complexes, school districts and other community organizations to educate on these important swimming skills.
Burns said, “Teaching our children skills like how to exit the water on their own if they fall in, how to not panic if they have a sudden submersion, are some of the things they focus on here in our safety round water program and help your kids help themselves.”
The Centers for Disease Control said drowning is the leading cause of death among children ages 1-4 and the second leading cause of accidental death among children ages 5-14.
“Drowning is a hundred percent a preventable thing that happens to kids it is the second leading cause of death in children,” Burns said.
Reliant is donating $30,000 to the program to help the YMCA bring water safety education to an additional 600 Houstonians this summer.
For more information on the program, contact the YMCA of Greater Houston at ymcahouston.org.
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