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By Carey Reeder | Managing Editor

A group of children in Chilton County received free swim lessons courtesy of the YMCA of Chilton County to provide them with lifelong skills in the water. Jacklyn Christian and Ralph Hendrix wanted to find a way to help children learn how to swim and cut down on the number of child drownings that happen every summer.

“By watching the news, and seeing children drowning in pools (I decided to do something),” Christian said. “I know all children could drown, but with African American children, the rate of drowning is higher because they do not know how to swim.”

The West End community in Clanton has E.M. Henry Park, but there is no swimming pool, and the journey to the City of Clanton’s pool is too far for those children in the community to make. Christian and Hendrix reached out to the YMCA of Chilton County and CEO Lori Patterson to explain their desire to provide swim lessons to the youth. The two provided a sign-up sheet, and it filled quickly with over 30 kids signing up for the lessons.

The swim lessons were open to all children locally, but a large number of the children who signed up were from the West End community. The children’s parents filled out an interest form after sign ups and answered a few questions like what they hoped to receive from the lessons, and what level of swim skills their children had.

“The majority, if not all of them, said that their child did not know how to swim, and they wanted them to learn the basic fundamentals of swimming,” Christian said.

Patterson jumped on board with the swim lessons and understood the needs of the kids in the area. She arranged a van from the YMCA to pick up the children at E.M. Henry Park each day for the swim lessons, and drop them back off at the park afterwards with their parents. She even added extra groups for older youth to participate as well.

“(Patterson) was really trying to help the younger children because that is when the drownings occur,” Christian said. “The older children were interested too, and she was able to open up more groups to accommodate them. Hats off to her because she did not have to do the stuff that she did.”

A graduation ceremony was held for the children after they completed their swim lessons on July 19. Christian gave a special thanks to Independent Presbyterian Church, Trinity Episcopal Church, Fountain Chapel AME Church, Executive Director of Aletheia House Chris Retan, the Chilton County Democrat Party, Deidra Gadberry, Foster Cook, Denise Moore, Jack and Sandy Peterson and Paula Pierson.

Christian said she plans to make the swim lessons an annual event and partner with the YMCA each summer to continue to educate the Chilton County youth on safety in the water.