‘Swimming is a life skill’: Native sorority hosts free clinic for ages 2–21

MONTGOMERY, Ala. (WSFA) – Sigma Gamma Rho Sorority’s Beta Sigma Alumni Chapter held a free swim clinic to show children water security and primary swimming abilities, aiming to cut back drownings and shut entry gaps.

Organizer Tiffany Fitzgerald says the clinic is free to make it accessible regardless of tight household budgets and serves ages 2–21, offering gear (goggles, cap, water bottle) and instruction from YMCA lifeguards, plus a particular visitor.

That visitor is Alia Atkinson (Jamaican Olympian/world champion and Sigma Gamma Rho member), who says this system helps break generational limitations and myths about folks of coloration swimming by creating constructive first experiences within the water and rising illustration within the sport.

“Swimming isn’t just a sport; it’s a life skill. So if we can retrain and educate it that way, then hopefully we can have the children getting in the water, hopefully their parents and grandparents as well, but making sure it’s accessible,” Atkinson stated.

She hopes she will present children that swimming is for everybody by way of hands-on interplay and illustration.

“These free swim lessons, these free opportunities to get in the water and have fun, are crucial,” Atkinson stated. “We’ve had swimmers three to four years that have never touched water and were super scared, and 40 minutes in, they didn’t want to leave. So it’s situations like that. Having good experiences in the water will help them to eventually come back.”

The clinic is about extra than simply introducing children to a enjoyable sport or summertime exercise. It’s about rising security.

Drowning is the main reason for demise for youngsters ages 1-14, based on the Alabama Department of Public Health, and 88% of kids had been beneath some type of supervision after they drowned, based on little one demise evaluate surveys.

“It’s such a life-saving skill that we’re teaching,” Fitzgerald stated. “And I think in the past, a statistic for the CDC would say about 10 people may drown a day just from not having the ability and knowing how to swim. So we want to lessen that statistic and really come out to our community and make sure that we are bringing those life-saving skills to our local community.”

For Atkinson, it’s a approach to share her skills and provides again to a youthful era.

“I know what swimming has done for me,” she stated. “I know how it allowed me to have more confidence and independence, so I want to give that to them. I want them to be able to understand who they are in and out of the water in this world and be able to feel comfortable in any arena they step in.”

Sigma Gamma Rho Sorority’s Beta Sigma Alumni Chapter holds this clinic yearly.

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