Susan Wallace (POC Learn to Swim Program) donates money to Port O’Connor Elementary Parent, Teacher Organization.
usan Wallace saw a need for swimming lessons in Port O’Connor and developed a program in 2018. Her focus was to teach vital lifesaving skills to our water surrounded community. Swim lessons help children and adults master an important skill and have fun doing it. Susan has an incredible amount of experience and is gracious enough to travel to our community to teach these water skills to our community. Classes that include both parents and their children also are a good way to introduce good water safety habits and start building swim readiness skills.
We are excited to report that the 2019 two-week swim program doubled in participant numbers from 2018! These classes consisted of new faces and returning students. There were three classes of each level, consisting of parent/child, beginner and advanced beginner/intermediate. Private lessons were also given. The success of 2019’s program allowed instructor Susan Wallace to donate generously to many local groups, including POC elementary, Seadrift elementary, POC service club and CCHS BBO. She used the funds from private lessons to cover her expenses and donated the entirety of monies paid into the POC Learn to Swim program back into the POC and surrounding community. Mrs. Wallace also provided several scholarships that covered much of the cost of the program for students that might not have been able to afford it otherwise. We are grateful that she is providing financial assistance to our community along with teaching an essential lifesaving skill.
In the parent child classes, they worked on safe entry and exiting of pool, rudimentary arm and leg propulsion, front and back floats, breath control and more. The adults became more comfortable working with the toddlers in the water. They became adept at submerging the child and sending them to another adult or a point of safety, such as a pool step. A few of these students mastered solo prone (face down) floats and were loving the feeling of their own natural buoyancy and resulting independence.
In the beginner, non-swimmer, classes, they worked hard on becoming more comfortable in the water while also submerging their faces. Most of the students became comfortable doing solo prone and back floats. Many of the students became quite adept swimming the short way across the pool.
In the advanced beginner/intermediate classes, they worked on improving propulsion and breath control. The beginner stroke (dog paddle) was easily mastered. Freestyle, back stroke, breast stroke, butterfly, side stroke, elementary back stroke and treading water were introduced or improved upon with success. These students swam the long way across the pool with ease. They also worked on diving skills which is great fun but for safety reasons must always be done in deep water.
The students learned about being safe around water and the importance of personal survival skills in and around the water. Safety skills were introduced or improved upon for all levels. Some people are apprehensive near water which is understandable since there are many ways to get injured, or worse, in and around water. Having some fear of water is healthy. For those that came to class with a strong level of discomfort in water, they left with knowledge of their ability to control what happens to them in water. These students get the biggest praise for addressing a life skill that causes them such great discomfort.
When time and weather allow, the POC Learn to Swim program has a day of play on the last Friday of classes. The swim groups were delighted to have Justin Pawlik from the Texas Wildlife and Fisheries come to speak. He captivated the student’s attention and patiently answered all their questions. It was a fantastic way to close out the years swim program. For 2020, due to the significant increase in participants, there will be lessons twice during the summer. The first lessons offered will be June 15-26. The second group of lessons offered will be July 20-31. Roughly two weeks long, Monday through Friday.
Susan Wallace (POC Learn to Swim Program) donates to the Port O’Connor Community Service Club.
Mrs. Wallace would like to thank Carol Riley, Justin Pawlik, Michelle Marlin, Jenny O’Neill and Beverly Clifton for their help launching and holding this year’s program.
A very special thank you to Marie and Robbie Hawes for the use of their pool.
Swim lessons went on from morning until evening, which is a long time to have people in their back yard and pool. Marie and Robbie’s gift to the local community is immeasurable. Please contact Susan if you have a pool and would consider hosting a few hours of lessons.
Thank you to the Port O’Connor and surrounding community participants for their continued support of this program. We look forward to another successful year of water safety! For any information regarding the 2020 Learn To Swim program, please contact Susan Wallace at (713) 416-6777 or e-mail her at sehays@hughes.com.
Susan Wallace (POC Learn to Swim Program) donates to Seadrift School.
