Students are gleefully diving into a new effort to teach water safety — one third-grade class at a time.
The Make a Splash program, in its first year in the Stanwood-Camano area, provides a week of free swimming lessons to all third-grade students in the district.
Twenty-three boys and girls in Sandi Meier’s class at Twin City Elementary were the first to jump in last month, learning about water safety techniques, understanding their limits around water and experiencing what to do in emergency situations, in addition to swim lessons.
Each class of third-graders is in the pool for 45 minutes for five days. Students are divided into groups depending on skill level and coached by several aquatics instructors in the pool.
The program is made possible by local Windermere agents and owners. Randy and Marla Heagle, owners of Windermere Real Estate Stanwood/Camano, kicked off the fundraising mission. Windermere agents raised more than $2,500, which the Heagle’s matched and then the Windermere Foundation matched that total to raise $10,000.
A special thanks to Evan Caldwell and Stanwood Camano News.