In hundreds of pools across the U.S. and throughout the world on Thursday, a valuable lesson took place — children learned how to swim.
Called The World’s Largest Swimming Lesson 2025, the global public relations event was supported by aquatic facilities, water parks, pools, swim schools, and YMCAs, among other venues.
Locally, event lessons took place at Sun Splash Family Waterpark in Cape Coral, Golisano Children's Hospital hosting at Margaritaville on Fort Myers Beach, North Port Aquatic Center, Centennial Park Pool and Ann & Chuck Dever Regional Park Pool in Charlotte County, and Goldfish Swim School at Lakewood Ranch in Sarasota County. There were also private events held as well.
The usually 30-minute lessons were lead by certified instructors teaching basic, life-saving water safety skills.
Education is almost always better when fun is involved and it was clear the children taking part at the Margaritaville resort pool Thursday were doing just that.
"it was really fun because I learned how to float on my back," Vasiliki Giannikoulis, a 9-year-old on vacation from Chicago, said.
James Yoder, a 12-year-old from Babcock Ranch, was happy with what he learned:
"It was fun. I like how we got to like swim as a group, and got to learn how to swim properly."
The worldwide lesson served as a platform to help the global aquatics industry work together to build awareness about the importance of teaching children to swim to prevent drowning.
Julie Noble, the Safe Kids Southwest Florida coordinator from Golisano Children's Hospital, said the lessons were important because drowning is the largest cause of death of children from 1 to 4 years of age.
"So today we're celebrating the World's Largest Swim Lesson. Tina Fleming, who's our water safety lead at Golisano and Safe Kids Southwest Florida, is leading a group of kids in a swim lesson, talking about the safety and the necessity to have supervision, how to practice safe swimming, and then to encourage others to get swim lessons."
Research shows risk of drowning can be reduced by 88 percent if children participate in formal swimming lessons between the ages of 1 and 4. Yet, a survey conducted by the American Red Cross in 2014 found that more than half of Americans (54 percent) either can’t swim or don’t have all of the basic swimming skills.
Created by the World Waterpark Association in 2010, the hope is that the event will encourage children to learn to swim at hundreds of venues around the world on the same day, to help build awareness about the importance of teaching swimming to prevent drowning.
Since the lesson event was started, more than 413,000 children and adults in 54 countries on six continents have participated.
WGCU is your trusted source for news and information in Southwest Florida. We are a nonprofit public service, and your support is more critical than ever. Keep public media strong and donate now. Thank you.
