Davie Aquatics
Davie, Fla.
Category: Targeted Programming
Highlights
• A pool in a lower-income neighborhood of Davie saw low traffic because of a prevalent fear of water. Local drowning statistics showed a need to increase swimming literacy in the area.
• To entice children to visit, this team installed water slides to boost the fun factor.
• When visitors could not pass the basic swimming test required to use the slides, management began offering free swim lessons.
In the town of Davie, Florida, one of the public pools remained uncrowded, almost empty, despite its beckoning waters on any of its hot summer days.
“A lot of kids would just sit on the stairs and put their feet in the water,” says Boris Gorrita, operations supervisor for Davie Aquatics.
More of them were lured to the nearby park and basketball courts instead.
The Betty Booth Roberts pool was located in a lower-income part of town with many minority families who had no background in swimming.
“They were terrified to be in the water,” Gorrita says. “The kids learned that from their parents, and the parents wanted to keep them safe and didn’t know how.”
That’s particularly frightening, considering that in Broward County, where Davie is located, there’s water everywhere. The county is covered with 450 swimming pools per square mile, not to mention the miles of oceanfront, lakes, rivers, harbors and wetlands.
Its drowning statistics are high: On average, eight children under 4 years old will drown each year in Broward County, contributing to Florida’s rank as the state with the highest drowning rate across the nation.
Dangling the carrot
To encourage the locals around Betty Booth Roberts pool to visit, Davie Aquatics added two water slides through a community block grant.
Soon, more and more children began showing up. However, many of them couldn’t pass the swimming test that was required in order to use the water slides. In response, Davie Aquatics then introduced its Swim to Slide program. Basically, if you want to go swooshing down those slides, you have to learn to swim. And Davie Aquatics will teach you. For free.
The program was a huge win. Students were taught basic water safety skills, with the goal that, if they ever fell into they water, they could swim to safety. Once participants could swim 25 yards, they graduated from the Swim to Slide program and were permitted to use the slides.
The goal was not to turn out highly skilled swimmers, but to provide kids with basic kick-and-stroke abilities that would allow them to enjoy the water safely. All of the teaching was performed by on-site swim instructors who volunteered their time.
Parents were thrilled that their children were gaining water skills.
“They were really excited that they could get their kids to learn to swim and the kids really wanted to learn,” Gorrita says.
Some parents even signed themselves up for lessons. Pool attendance went up at least 25%, if not more, at Betty Booth Roberts pool.
And Gorrita’s next aspiration: That the pool eventually move from summer-only to year-round status.
— Rin-rin Yu