Greensboro Aquatic Center & Guilford County Schools receive AOAP Life Jacket Grant!
Greensboro Aquatic Center & Guilford County Schools receive AOAP Life Jacket Grant!
The Greensboro Aquatic Center & Guilford County Schools Swim program provides Water Safety lessons and teaches important skills to Second Graders throughout our public school system. Lessons are during the school day and incorporate the Second Grade Healthy Living Standards curriculum. These students are extending their learning from the classroom to the Greensboro Aquatic Center! This is where they learn a wide variety of aquatic-related skills and safety. In addition to learning to feel comfortable and enjoy the water for recreation, health and fitness, students learn about sports and careers in aquatics and focus on the important character traits inherent in learning any challenging activity. Our instructors track the progress of each student to measure individual improvement from day 1 through day 8. Second graders learn the importance of water safety which includes use of life jackets. Not only do our instructors demonstrate how to properly wear a life jacket, they go over scenarios where a jacket is needed and how to enter and exit the water wearing one. Once in the water, students practice floating on their backs and fronts while also jumping in the water. Thanks to the AOAP grant which provided 32 children’s life jackets, we now have enough for all locations to participate in two centers where life jacket use and practice is provided.
There are no fees to the participants, their families or Guilford County Schools for these lessons. All costs associated with this program are off-set by grants, sponsorship donations, and in-kind services. The AOAP Grant has provided both funding and resources to help the GAC continue to grow this program and meet our goal:
Teach every Second Grader in Guilford County Water Safety Swim skills through lessons.
This life-saving and life-changing swim program began with four schools and 240 graduates in 2011 when the Greensboro Aquatic Center opened, and we have grown each year since. In the 2016-2017 school year, the program expanded to two other locations in Greensboro plus two in the city of High Point thanks to our partners at the YMCA and Greensboro Parks and Recreation. Last year Twenty-four (24) schools across five (5) different locations participated in our swim lessons. To date, five-thousand and five (5,005) students have graduated the Greensboro Aquatic Center GCS Swim program. This year, the GCLTS program will provide free Water Safety/Swim lessons to thirty-two (32 schools).
The goal of the program is to see all 69 elementary schools across Guilford County participate in the program every school year. Our School board and Superintendent support the program and take care of two important components: providing one (approved) male and female to assist second graders (only they are permitted in the changing rooms) and absorbing the cost of the bus driver and transportation to and from school.
Thank you AOAP for supporting our swim program and enriching the learning opportunities for so many. Together we are changing and saving lives!
Sincerely,
Susan Braman, Manager Greensboro Aquatic Center
