Making a safe splash this summer
SOUTH BEND, Ind. -- Michiana is warming up, pools are opening, and many are ready to dive in, but when it comes to water, you can’t test the depths when each drowning happens differently.
“Kids will just slip under, there’s not a sound, and others there’s a dramatic splashing… it ranges from quite to as loud as it can get… it can happen quick, it can happen slow, there’s so many different scenarios,” said South Bend’s Venues Parks & Arts (VPA) Aquatics and Ice manager, Kelli Notteboom.
Teaching our local community how to keep themselves and others safe both in and outside of the water is one part of what the VPA Aquatics team does.
“We oversee a lot of different things, we have learn-to-swim programs, lifeguarding classes, we’ve got the Kennedy Water Playground, East Race, and aqua aerobics programming, so we have something that covers… just starting out with swimming, all the way to those who are adventurous,” said Notteboom.
The learn-to-swim program has been around for years, Notteboom taking the class herself at seven years old, so she knows the importance of learning life-saving skills.
“If something does happen, that’s probably the number one thing that any kid can do… if you can float on your back, you can call for help and you’re able to breath, two of the very basic things to swimming,” said Notteboom.
Before you can learn those skills, however, the VPA aquatics supervisor, Stephanie Klemm, said you have to get comfortable in the water, which is the first step when teaching lessons.
“We do some water acclimation skills… so blowing bubbles, what we call bobs where you go all the way under and submerge… if they’re super uncomfortable with the water… you know taking water in your hands or just like rubbing it on your body… getting used to the water,” said Klemm.
If someone is drowning, Notteboom said they will find air however they can, so staying away will keep everyone safe.
“They’re gonna want to climb, they’re gonna want to reach, they’re gonna want to get their head above the water so they can breathe, so with the Red Cross program that we teach, we use the Longfellow’s WHALE Tales and one of their sayings is ‘reach or throw, don’t go’,” said Notteboom.
"If you are not a comfortable swimmer or trained lifeguard, we always say do not get in the water, that’s part of the ‘don’t go’… do not get in to try to rescue somebody because you can put yourself in danger as well,” said Klemm.
It’s not just kids that are at risk in the water, in a recent study, the CDC found 40 million U.S. adults do not know how to swim, which is an issue Notteboom said they observed in South Bend as well.
“Quite a few years ago we had a couple of adults that they wanted to learn to swim so bad, they jumped in with the kids… so we’ve started offering at least one adult class per session, and we do it more goal based,” said Notteboom.
So, whether you’re one or 100, it’s never too late to wade into the water, as long as you know the skills to do it safely.
“If you’re in that pool setting… have somebody who is watching the water, if you’re out on the lake, even if you don’t think you’ll get in… put the kids in a life jacket…make sure those life jackets fit properly, and then getting kids into swim lessons, and if you don’t know how to swim yourself, sign up for one of our classes, we’ll get you going,” said Notteboom.
Click here to learn more about VPA’s learn-to-swim programs, click here.