Learn to Swim, Swim to Live

About the Program

Category: Children and Youth (Best in Category)

Year: 2012

Orangeburg County offers an array of outdoor recreation. The Santee Cooper Lakes provide 170,000 acres of fresh water for boating, swimming, year round fishing and other aquatic activities. After seeing senseless drowning summer after summer, we now know that drowning is the second leading cause of unintentional injury-related death for those younger than 19. This has a serious affect on Orangeburg County because one demographic in particular, African-Americans, is predisposed by the statistic. According to a USA swimming survey, 40 percent of white children were found to have low or no swimming ability, the same was true for nearly 70 percent of African-American children, and Latino children also lag in their swimming level, with 58 percent at low or no swimming ability. Orangeburg County joined forces with the YMCA and Orangeburg Consolidated School District Three, to create a swimming and learning program to teach area kids how to swim. This program has helped to reduce the number of unnecessary drowning.