Youngstown students dive in

Staff report

YOUNGSTOWN

Swimming is a great form of exercise, and three well-known Mahoning Valley institutions have joined forces to ensure more children have the opportunity to enjoy it.

Through a partnership among the YMCA of Youngstown and its Central Y, the United Way of Youngstown and the Mahoning Valley and the Youngstown City School District, hundreds of Youngstown schoolchildren are learning to swim.

The United Way is funding the program to allow city school district second-graders to take weekly swim lessons at the Central Y.

About 260 second-graders from six city elementary schools have been taking the swim lessons since October with students from the three remaining district elementary schools to start in January.

Swimming provides a fun, low-impact workout that can be practiced throughout a person’s lifetime.

The lessons also can potentially prevent what may be a safety risk.

According to the Consumer Product Safety Commission, nationwide 350 children younger than age 5 drown in pools each year, and 2,600 are treated in hospital emergency rooms each year from near-drowning incidents.

The safety concerns are even greater among minorities. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reports that black children age 5 to 14 drown at nearly three times the rate of their white peers.