More than just swimming lessons

Swimming instructions usually involve lessons on floating, breathing, arm strokes, leg kicks, and such, but the Kiwanis Club of Bellevue, Nebraska, hopes to instill much more in their young students.

The Kiwanians partner with a local school district to conduct the course. The school offers its pool and dressing rooms, and it promotes registration among families enrolled in its early childhood center. Certified instructors conduct the lessons. The Kiwanis club funds the program with a US$1,500 contribution, and eight Kiwanis volunteers greet the children, help them change into swimwear, monitor them, feed them snacks, and say good-bye.

More than 70 boys and girls attend the Friday afternoon, 30-minute classes over a seven-week period, steadily advancing from sitting poolside through wading in the shallow end to “Look, Mom, my feet aren’t touching!”

“We teach much more than swimming,” says Bellevue Kiwanian John Perrin. “The children learn hygiene, like why they need to go to the bathroom before they get in the pool and why they need to take showers. They learn that you can have fun in the water when you obey the rules. They learn to follow instructions, and they learn they can trust other people.

“Our primary goal is that every kid wants to come back.”