St. Cloud schools, YMCA team up for Safety Around Water program

Drowning is the second most common cause of death for children younger than 14 in Minnesota. And roughly 80% of children from low-income homes have little to no swimming skills.

These facts pushed the St. Cloud YMCA, in partnership with St. Cloud Area School District 742, to start the Safety Around Water program.

The program teaches second graders from Talahi Community School and Madison Elementary School fundamental water safety skills such as swimming techniques and finding safe places to swim.

The classes began with one classroom session and then several sessions in a YMCA pool. All participating students this year received a swimsuit, a pair of goggles, a backpack for their pool gear, instruction materials and transportation for the pool sessions.

Kaitlin Pohland, aquatics director at the St. Cloud YMCA, said equity was the goal of the entire program. Children were given the equipment so “they're all on the same level.”

The program was supposed to start much sooner but construction at the YMCA and COVID-19 slowed down the process.

Aside from equity, Pohland and other staff members had other motivations when it came to working with the participating children. “The smiles on their faces ... when they’re in the water. You can’t get over it. They love every second of being in the water.”

The Safety Around Water program is expected to be expanded by adding it to the district's curriculum so all St. Cloud second graders can have access to water safety education.

The program was sponsored and fully paid for by Gate City Bank and Pilgrim’s Cold Spring, a local poultry company.

Abdulla Gaafarelkhalifa is the education reporter for the St. Cloud Times. Reach him agaafarelkhalifa@stcloudtimes.com. Follow him on Twitter @AbdullaGaafare1

This article originally appeared on St. Cloud Times: Safety Around Water program teaches St. Cloud students swimming basics