Children in Brooklyn, the Bronx and Manhattan are learning how to swim thanks to free weekly swim lessons from Asphalt Green, which are a great way for kids to keep fit. NY1's Roger Clark filed the following report.
Instructor David Loza gives a second grader from P.S. 57 in Harlem a lesson in floating. It's a first step in teaching swimming, where building trust is key.
"You get them in the water, you make them blow some bubbles, make them feel like they're safe," Loza said.
Loza teaches at the Children's Aid Society's Dunlevy Milbank Center, one of six locations in the nonprofit Asphalt Green's waterproofing program. Twenty-five-hundred children at 43 city elementary schools learn to swim for free during school days. The goal is to get kids in shape, and even more pivotal, to eliminate childhood drowning. The Centers for Disease Control says more than one in five drowning victims are under 14.
"It's really an essential skill. And once you have it, you have it for a lifetime, and that's going to have you seek it out as you get older," said David Ludwig, community programs director with Asphalt Green. "And it's a great way to stay fit and healthy, too."
Those involved in the program said there is a special need for it in communities like Harlem. Statistics show that black and Latino children are, on average, more likely to be obese and not know how to swim.
The Dunlevy Milbank Center has partnered with Asphalt Green for five years, and folks here said the program has made a difference.
"The kids, in the morning, they start on this side of the pool, and then by the end of the program, they're at the deep end," said Casper Lassiter with the Children's Aid Society Dunlevy Milbank Center. "And that's really the goal, to make sure that young people are staying healthy and they can definitely learn how to swim."
Before you know it, the kids go from blowing bubbles to jumping off the starting blocks. Quite a splash, and quite a workout. You really use every inch of your body.
"Even if you don't feel it that first day, I guarantee you the following day, you will feel it. Trust me," Loza said.
To hear more about Asphalt Green's waterproofing program, or if you want to help out so they can teach even more kids to swim, head to their website, asphaltgreen.org.