Florida Swimming Pool Association Helps Fund Water-Safety Lessons

The Florida Swimming Pool Association (FSPA) once again has provided generous support to a Gulf Coast Community Foundation initiative that offers free water-safety training to public-school second-graders in Sarasota and Charlotte counties.

FSPA’s statewide Swimming Pool Education and Safety Foundation and the organization’s local Manasota and Charlotte Harbor chapters recently contributed a total of $4,000 to support the Kids SWIM (Safe Water Instruction Matters) program through Gulf Coast. Kids SWIM funds and coordinates a week’s worth of free swimming lessons for second-graders at participating schools in the two districts. The donations include $2,000 for lessons in Sarasota County and $2,000 for lessons in Charlotte County during the upcoming school year. 

“The Florida Swimming Pool Association has helped to support Kids SWIM from very early on,” said Veronica Brady, senior vice president for philanthropy at Gulf Coast Community Foundation. “These generous contributions ensure that local children can participate in potentially life-saving swimming lessons that they otherwise might go without.”

Through Kids SWIM, Gulf Coast partners with the Sarasota and Charlotte school districts and several youth-serving nonprofit organizations to provide transportation, pool time, and certified instruction in basic water safety. Second-grade classes that participate go to a nearby pool facility for an instructional period each day for an entire week during the school year. Thousands of area students have benefitted from Kids SWIM since it launched in Sarasota in 2013 with the support of Gulf Coast Community Foundation donors Keith and Linda Monda. In 2016, with additional donor support, the program was expanded to Charlotte County.

Want to help? Gifts to support free swimming lessons for local students can be made online at GulfCoastCF.org/donate (select “Kids SWIM Fund” or “Kids SWIM Charlotte Fund”) or by check to Gulf Coast Community Foundation, 601 Tamiami Trail South, Venice, FL 34285.