DALLAS – Olympian Bode Miller's daughter recently drowned, just seconds after she wandered away from her family.
In North Texas, communities have experienced similar tragedies too often this year already, and summer hasn’t even started.
That is why one neighborhood is coming together for life-saving lessons for children and parents.
Each Tuesday afternoon, children from the Joppa community in southern Dallas shuttle to Park South YMCA. They spend the afternoon in swim lessons.
“We just wanted to make sure that the children had a chance,” said Shalondria Galimore with South Central Civic League. She and other members of Joppa’s neighborhood association wanted to be proactive.
They wanted to make sure the community’s children know swimming basics.
“The first week we got here, we had some there that were terrified,” Galimore said. “They screamed. They didn’t want to go close to [the water]. This is the third week, they are actually going to the water, they are enjoying it.”
Recent drownings making headlines across North Texas motivated some of Joppa’s community organizers on the mission to teach the children, and some parents, about swim safety.
“It’s a small community, and I just refuse to allow another child to be lost, because he didn’t have the opportunity to try to learn how to swim,” Joppa resident Larry Christopher said.
Christopher said there are no recreation centers in Joppa, and there are very few options in the community for kids. He says partnering with YMCA’s Urban Swim Program is significant.
“We are trying to teach them life skills, so that if they happen to fall in the water or some sort, that they won’t panic and hopefully, they can get themselves out,” Christopher said.
The YMCA’s staff says data shows minorities are likely to experience four-times more drownings than other groups. That is why they are working to cut down those numbers through the urban swim program.
Park South YMCA’s Program Director, Tori Phillips, said it is rare to have residential communities, like Joppa, stepping up to take advantage of the Y’s swim programs.
“Joppa is very unique in a way their community’s close knit together, with them actually partnering with this program,” Phillips said. “I feel like it can benefit both communities.”
So far, 19 children from Joppa are registered in the swim program.
Galimore and her neighbors believe with simple lessons, drownings can be prevented.