Eric Shendelman is leading an initiative to expand water safety education and make swimming lessons more accessible while serving as president of Shendy's Swim School and partner with the Camp Safety Network. He chairs a national committee with the Canadian Drowning Prevention Coalition and has served as president of the Ontario Camps Association. The Lifesaving Society's Swim to Survive model teaches assessing surroundings, rolling into deep water, treading water for one minute and swimming 50 metres. Lifesaving Society data show 47 percent of drownings in Ontario occur in lakes or ponds and 20 percent in rivers. Staff observed that half of some schoolchildren could not swim, especially among at-risk and underserved populations. A Dryden family created the Water Wings foundation after two siblings drowned to advocate for water safety and school-aged swimming lessons.
We're putting 'Swim to Survive' as one of our top priorities this coming year.
Having already offered this program to some local schools that are in so much need, my staff saw that half the kids going through this program weren't able to swim.
'Whether it's at-risk youth, whether it's those that don't have access to lessons, whether it's other populations that are considered not having access, they're finding their way into water and then we'll hear [about] these senseless drownings.'
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