November 2014 - Parks & Recreation - 16

Community Center
Toward 50,000 WaterCompetent Swimmers

The American Red Cross is celebrating 100 years of promoting water safety with an
ambitious campaign to teach people to swim and prevent drowning deaths
By Samantha Bartram

American Red Cross

sk your friends and family members, " Do you know how to swim? "
You will likely find many who say, yes, of course they can swim. You'll
see them contemplate the question, unearthing memories of splashing
about in the community pool, or perhaps jumping the breaking waves on some
distant shore. There they were, in their bathing suits, enjoying the water and having a great time, so, of course they can swim! However, ask these same folks,
" What's your level of water competency? " and you may be met with a confused
stare. While swimming and water competency certainly go hand in hand, there
are critical nuances regarding proficiency in the two that can sometimes mean the
difference between life and death by drowning. As the American Red Cross recognizes its 100th anniversary of providing swimming safety education, its aquatics leaders are taking on a five-year, 50-city campaign to reduce the drowning rate
by 50 percent by teaching 50,000 people what it means to be " water competent. "

Cole Moody, 4, experiences swimming
in a life jacket under the watchful eye
of City of Myrtle Beach, South Carolina, Parks and Recreation Water Safety
Instructor Lauren Mynhier.

14 Parks & Recreation

In the Shallow End
In preparation for its centennial campaign, the Red Cross partnered with
market researchers ORC International to learn more about how Americans view their swimming proficiency.
Turns out, many folks believe they're
much better swimmers than they actually are. The survey found that although 80 percent of Americans said
they could swim, only 56 percent of
the self-described swimmers could
perform all five of the basic skills the
Red Cross has identified that could
prevent drowning. Put another way,
more than half the survey respondents
are " water incompetent. " Connie
Harvey, the director of Aquatics Centennial Initiatives for the Red Cross,
said these findings were not particularly surprising to her team. " I don't
think most people understand what it
really means to be 'able to swim' or

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to be 'water competent,' " she says.
" Many think that if they are comfortable in the shallow end of the pool or
can make it across the width of a pool
that they have the basic skills. "
The Red Cross defines water competency as encompassing critical safety skills including: step or jump into
the water over your head; return to
the surface and float or tread water for
one minute; turn around in a full circle
and find an exit from the water; swim
25 yards to the exit; and exit from the
water. If in a pool, you must be able to
exit without using the ladder.
Overall, the survey found 54 percent of Americans either can't swim
or are not able to perform all the water competency skills. On top of that,
many discrepancies in water competency were found among race, gender
and age, including:
* Only 33 percent of African-Americans report that they can perform all
five basic swimming skills, compared
to 51 percent of whites. The survey
showed that 84 percent of whites and
69 percent of African-Americans say
they can swim.
* Just four in 10 parents of children
ages 4-17 report that their child can
perform all five basic swimming skills,
yet more than nine in 10 (92 percent)
say that their child is likely to participate in water activities this summer.
* Men are significantly more likely
than women to report that they

November 2014 - Parks & Recreation

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