Wild Rivers water park in Irvine hosted the World's Largest Swimming Lesson™, proudly sponsored by MemorialCare, on June 20 with over 200 children in attendance. The World's Largest Swimming Lesson™ is a promotional event designed to build awareness and generate local and national media attention about the vital importance of teaching kids to swim to help prevent drowning and improve quality of life.
Drowning is silent and can happen in as little as 20-60 seconds. Tragically, drowning is the leading cause of death for children ages 1-4, which makes the preventable nature of these incidents even more heartbreaking. According to a research study conducted by the American Red Cross, 56% of kids ages 4-17 cannot perform the basic water safety skills they need to save their own lives.
“As a pediatric intensivist who has worked in the pediatric intensive care unit at Miller Children’s & Women’s Hospital for a significant portion of my career, we see drowning too often, especially in the summer months: kids who are brought to our emergency department whose caregiver just took their eyes off their child for a split second,” says Graham Tse, M.D., chief medical officer, MemorialCare Miller Children’s & Women’s Hospital Long Beach. “Learning CPR, especially infant CPR, as well as taking swimming lessons with the entire family to learn basic water survival skills, can mean the difference between life and death. So, I applaud the work that Wild Rivers is doing today to keep our youngest community members safe.”
Teaching children to swim and be safe around water is not just a fun activity but a critical life skill. Learning to swim and the exposure to water safety skills that swimming lessons offer provides a lifelong foundation for drowning prevention. The swim lesson taught at Wild Rivers included basic water skills such as learning to float on your back, proper breathing techniques, submerging and blowing bubbles, basic swimming strokes, and how to enter and exit a pool safely.
MemorialCare and Wild Rivers is committed to promoting water safety and ensuring that every child has the opportunity to learn essential swimming skills. Events like the World's Largest Swimming Lesson™ play a crucial role in preventing drowning and fostering a safer community.
