Last week’s Sandals Learn to Swim Week set new records for many locations as summer camps and groups throughout the island were invited to integrate swim lessons into their programmes.
This resulted in camps such as Elvira’s Garden’s, the Community Library, Camp Glow, the Belair Home and a number of sports camps being able to attend. One summer school programme brought 50 swimmers to Telescope Beach. Kris Belfon and Dalia Williams, in charge of the children attending the summer school at St Andrew’s Methodist said, “It was a wonderful and meaningful programme and we were so appreciative of the friendliness, patience and knowledge of the swim instructors. The children said it was exciting, fun, and interesting and they were happy to be outdoors and learning something new.” A special thanks to 8 Seventh Day Adventists that just went through training in April to become swim instructors at the Telescope site and did a wonderful job teaching almost 100 swimmers in all.
Swim weeks began in 2015 and now happen twice a year in April and July. Last week’s activity was sponsored by the Sandals Foundation and organised by Grenada Youth Adventures through its Get Grenada Swimming programmes. From 11-15 July, 16 locations (beaches, rivers, pools) across the island came alive with children 5 years and older, as well as adults joining swim instructors who shared best practices and swim techniques to help everyone become water safe. Special thanks to True Blue Bay Resort who donated one of their pools for the swimmers to be taught.
Deb Eastwood, Director at Grenada Youth Adventures was elated with the turnout noting, “It was fabulous! Our previous record for a swim week was 830 swimmers and we reached 916 this time. The National Learn to Swim Week forms part of the Sandals Foundation’s Caribbean-wide Ocean Connect programme geared at teaching 1,000 children how to swim. This was almost achieved in just this one week, but even more important is Sandal’s commitment to helping us train Certified Swim Instructors (along with NVQs awarded through the National Training Agency). We have just finished a 6-month programme sponsored by Sandals to this end and are working towards a 5-year goal to put 100 people through this intensive curriculum taught by Nataly Regis, Senior Swimming Coach, Ministry of Sports. The goal is to ensure that swimming is a life skill available to all and achieving this goal of 100 coaches will insure the sustainability of a swim culture on our island.”
Free Saturday lessons will continue through the school holidays at Grand Anse Beach in front of Umbrellas at 9 am, Grand Mal Beach at the Go Cool Steps (10 am – 12 pm), and Gouyave behind the fish market (12 pm – 2 pm). All 10 locations will resume activities in September. More info may be found at www.getgrenadaswimming.com or by contacting Deb Eastwood on WhatsApp at 404-5237 or email [email protected].
Get Grenada Swimming
