Swimming just part of the lesson for Ridgewood program
AUGUST 7, 2015 LAST UPDATED: FRIDAY, AUGUST 7, 2015, 12:31 AM
BY MATTHEW SCHNEIDER
STAFF WRITER |
THE RIDGEWOOD NEWS
A group of inner-city children filed off big yellow school buses on Tuesday, excited for the day of swimming and fun that awaited them.
They came from Paterson, where accessible bodies of water are not very abundant, to idyllic Ridgewood and Graydon Pool as part of the Citizens For Swimming program.
Founded in 1968, Citizens For Swimming is a charitable initiative that brings about 75 kids out of the urban landscape and into suburbia, in order to give them nine days of fun and to teach them how to swim.
“I work in public health, so I know that learning to swim is really important for kids,” said Dawn Walter, who runs the program. “They’ll be in situations throughout their lives where, even if they don’t know how to swim, learning a little water safety can save their lives.
“Many of the kids move up several swim levels during their nine days of lessons,” she said. “We feel that teaching the kids to swim can help keep them safe for a lifetime.”
This seemed to be a theme among the volunteers, as two others expressed their desire to teach the kids how to swim out of concern for their long-term safety.