St. Cloud Y, District 742 Team Up To Start Water Safety Program Thanks to Donation

(KNSI) – A new partnership between the YMCA and the St. Cloud Area School District will teach basic water safety to second grade students. The St. Cloud Area Family YMCA will begin the Safety Around Water (SAW) program on April 13th.

St. Cloud Y Aquatics Director Kaitlin Pohland says the program will begin this spring with the 260 second grader kids at Madison and Talahi elementary schools in District 742.

“It’s not a swim lesson. It’s nothing like that. It’s teaching basics skills like floating, standing in the water and how to get out of water. That’s what we’re teaching. Our partnership with District 742 is so amazing that they’re adding this water safety program to their curriculum for this 2022 to 2023 school year.”

Pohland will go to the schools to meet with students and talk about water safety, and then the Y will bus the second graders to the pool as part of their school day. She says they picked second graders because it’s a critical time in a child’s development.

“There are studies showing if you expose children to any sort of new ability before the age of eight, it’s more likely to stick or they’re more likely to stick with it. And that’s why we said second graders is who we wanted to reach.”

Next year, the program will help 750 students when all of District 742’s second graders take the course. Pohland says all students will get the tools to start at the same level no matter their water safety experience.

“Each child will get their own drawstring bag, they will get their own swimsuit, whatever swimsuit they may need, culturally appropriate whatever they need for their needs. They’ll get a free swimsuit and a free pair of goggles, so that way they have all of that equipment to all start at the same at the same spot and they don’t have to worry about it.”

The SAW classes will take about four to six weeks per class to complete. She says anyone living in Minnesota should be taught basic water safety knowledge.

“They might not have access to pools but look how much access we have to open water in St. Cloud and all around the state. We’re the land of 10,000 lakes. The Mississippi River goes right through town. Madison and Talahi are two schools that are close to the river. It’s easy to get in a situation around water that is unsafe and we want kids to at least be exposed to the tools to help themselves.”

According to the St. Cloud Y, drowning is the second leading cause of death and injury among children ages 1 to 14 years old in Minnesota. According to the USA Swimming Foundation, 79% of children in homes with incomes less than $50,000 have little to no swimming ability because of a lack of access to quality swim instruction. According to a press release, those figures are the primary reason the SAW program was created.

The program is free, thanks to donations of $50,000 donation from Gate City Bank and Pilgrim’s in Cold Spring. The St. Cloud Y also got funds from the United Way of Central Minnesota, Minnesota Department of Education, Central Minnesota Community Foundation, etc.

The Y and school hope to keep the program going for years and would like to expand it to other school districts. For more on the program and to see who else donated to make the SAW Classes possible, click here.

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