Seminole County receives grants to provide free swim lessons to the youth

SEMINOLE COUNTY, Fla. — With drownings being the lead cause of death for children ages one to four in Florida, Seminole County in an effort to combat that statistic has received a two-year Pool Safety Grant from the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission for $194,535.

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Some of the grant money will help fund one-on-one survival swim lessons to 125 Seminole County children ranging in age from six months to 12 years.

These lessons will be held in Swim Life’s heated indoor pool at 251 Gordon Street, Sanford, and will focus on teaching young swimmers basic safety and survival in the water.

Another portion of the grant funds will go into providing education to first responders, code enforcement, and other public safety professionals to help them identify pool safety hazards and other drowning prevention methods.

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This training will be implemented over the next year as a partnership between the Seminole County Community Health Division, the Seminole County Fire Department, and other agencies.

“We are thankful to the Seminole County Community Health Division and the Seminole County Fire Department for partnering with us on this important outreach,” said David Wiggins, Vice President of Development of Swim Life, Inc. “Our qualified Swim Life instructors are carefully screened and selected to teach survival swim and they initially receive over 100 hours of hands-on training and curriculum before they are certified.”

Parents or guardians can request the scholarship/voucher here.

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