White Rock Y makes a splash with outreach swim lessons

WHITE ROCK, TX. (July 16, 2014) The White Rock YMCA has always given plenty of kids the opportunity for splashes, smiles, and swimming lessons in the community pool. But now, they take this gift on the road by bringing lessons to them in their very own apartments.

Since 2010, YMCAs around the Dallas area have started offering free swim lessons to young community members who could not afford them otherwise. The program, which is called “Make a Splash,” started out small. But Program Director Linda Morash said the White Rock Make a Splash team now seeks to serve 400 local kids at 26 different locations.

“We want to get swim lessons to kids who wouldn’t ordinarily have them,” Morash said. “It’s the best thing we do all year.”

Morash said that the swim course consists of eight lessons total, and the goal is mainly “drown-proofing.” The YMCA staff members teach the kids basics on how to stay afloat in hopes that they would be able to use the skills they’ve learned in a dire situation later on in life, or simply to be safer when they play at the pools at their apartments. The Make a Splash staff consists of nine lifeguards, and six of them travel out to each apartment complex at a time.

As the program started to take off, Morash said she was shocked to learn that many of the kids they visited did not have swimsuits of their own, or money to buy them. Now she makes sure the staff is stocked with extra suits to give away when they are on the road, so that more kids will have a chance to learn and play in the pool.

Morash said that seeing situations like those firsthand serve as a reality check both for herself, and especially for her young staff members.

“I think everybody needs that every once and a while,” she said.

Morash said she believes the Make a Splash program is one of the most rewarding things White Rock YMCA participates in all year due to the impact it makes.

“It is a tangible way we can give back to the community,” she said.

Submitted by White Rock YMCA.

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