When Heather first proposed the idea of a swim center here in the Harbor on her person FB page I “liked” it. I commented: “Yes! I think it is insane that our options are so limited.” Good intentions, because that’s easy to have behind a screen, am I right?
The next day the private swim lessons I had lined up for my kids for the summer were canceled. The family that hosted them out of their private pool for the past many years were outed by their HOA. I was devastated and extremely frustrated. I private messaged Heather “I’m in. 100% all the way let’s do this.”
We had a name and a mission.
Swim Safe Gig Harbor exists to advocate for a public aquatics facility in Gig Harbor, WA in response to the water safety needs of our growing community. We lobby for Gig Harbor families and children to have a positive, affordable experience with aquatic environments; that individuals should have the confidence and water safety knowledge needed to do so.
We believe in having a public aquatic center that will:
- Provide affordable swim lessons for all ages and financial backgrounds.
- Provide a non-stressful swimming environment for all ages to enjoy.
- Adult lap swim
- Senior swim - lap, aerobics, leisure
- Open swim for all ages
- Family swim
- Recreational swim teams
- Prioritize water safety in the Gig Harbor community for generations to come.
We launched the group Swim Safe Gig Harbor and that night watched person after person in this community join our group and back our cause.
We recently had the Gateway newspaper write an piece about a very sad and unfortunate drowning that happened at Horseshoe Lake. Swim Safe Gig Harbor got a nod in the article. The article begins “Gig Harbor, a city with water nearly everywhere, has no public swimming pool.”
According to the NDPA (National Drowning Prevention Alliance) “Formal swimming lessons reduce the risk of drowning among children 1-4 years old. This is the only sport that can actually save lives and can reduce the risk of drowning among older individuals.”
According to the American Academy of Pediatrics; drowning is the leading cause of injury related deaths in the US in children ages 1-4 years old and the 3rd leading cause of unintentional injury related deaths in kids ages 5-19 years old. In 2019 the AAP recommend children start swim lessons around the age of 1 years old to help decrease drowning.
When my own son was around 5 years old I watched him slip under the water. It happened within the first 10 minutes of me letting him take his life jacket off to give his arms a break from rubbing against the rough fabric. It happened even though I knew better. I wasn’t on my phone. I wasn’t reading a book. I was paying attention. It was fast and it was silent. I was in the water pulling him out within the first 20 seconds. Those seconds felt like a lifetime. He told me he was scared he was going to be eaten by a shark. He also told me he remembered “to catch his bubble” (hold his breath). He had only had 2 sessions of swimming lessons.
Drowning is silent. Children can drown in as short a time as 20 seconds in as little as 2 inches of water.
According to Stop Drowning Now .org “learning to swim can reduce the risk of drowning by 88% for a child ages 1-4 years who take formal swim lessons.”
We took a poll within our Swim Safe Gig Harbor FB group and asked;
“Do you trust your kids to swim confidently?”
•83 people said No
•22 people said not all my kids
•7 people said yes
We have a need in this community to do better by our children and give every child the skill and confidence to feel safe in the water.
