The calendar says spring, but blink and it will be summer in North Texas. Summer break means pool time for many students. “Ah, my favorite part is about splashing,” second grader Jeremiah Aruho said. Aruho is among 700 first and second-graders in 11 schools in Dallas ISD who are enrolled i n a two-week water safety swim pilot program, a partnership between Dallas ISD and the YMCA. “We know that swim lessons reduce the risk of drowning by 88%,” YMCA Director of Safety Around Water Marioli Diaz said. “So this is why we want to give kids in our community the opportunity to do this, so we can prevent or eradicate drownings in our communities.” “I immediately thought of one of our students, who is now a first grader, who last year, prior to the end of the school year, suffered a near-drowning experience,” Mary McLeod Bethune Elementary Principal Sandra Hernandez said. “Many of our students are low socio-economic status that don’t have the opportunity to get personalized swimming lessons. It’s ‘go to the pool and just figure it out.’ So I’m just very thankful, because this is a life-changing experience for many of our students.” Some of the students, like Aruho, have never been in a pool before the Dallas ISD/YMCA classes. “He’s the first in our family to enter a swimming pool,” Aruho’s dad, Brian Arinaitwe, said, who added that he did not know how to swim. “I think he will be the first to learn how to swim in my family, he will teach me. I’m so sure about it! He will teach me.” “I learned how to swim, I learned how to float, and I was so happy that they were helping me,” Aruho said. Students in the pilot program will also be able to take free swimming lessons over the summer. ...read more read less