Squeals of excitement echoed around the aquatic center at the Concord YMCA as 18 new Americans slid into the water for a swim – some of them for the very first time.
Aquatics Director Jen Bonnett stood on the pool deck laughing and clapping her hands.
“You should have heard them on the first day,” she said. “They’re loving it.”
The Concord YMCA was approved for a grant to give free swim lessons to new Americans five months ago through the YMCA of the USA. The goal was to expose children who have immigrated here with their families from other countries to the YMCA’s Safety Around Water program.
The SAW program aims to improve the safety of children and young adults with little to no swimming experience. It focuses on teaching students how to tread water, float, kick and provide assistance to those who might need help while swimming.
The SAW classes for this group started July 11 and will run Monday Wednesday and Friday for the next two weeks.
At the lessons, children practice wading in between the black and red flags at the pool’s backstroke marks, jumping into the YMCA pool’s eight-foot “deep end” and kicking on the wall.
Nirusha Tamang, 7, of Nepal had never swam before she started lessons at the YMCA last week. Tamang said her favorite thing about being in the water is jumping in.
Evelyn Seba, 16, was also a beginner swimmer before she started the class. Seba moved from the land-locked country of Zambia to Concord two years ago.
“My favorite part is floating,” she said. “That’s the most fun.”
The Concord YMCA partnered inwith Ascentia Care Alliance, the largest provider of social services in New England to run the swim classes. Ascentia places liaisons in the school district to help integrate refugees into Concord schools.
Ascentia Education Liaison Kelsey Forbes said swim classes are important for them because water safety isn’t usually something that’s on the radar of a family moving to a new home.
When a family moves to a new country, they have a lot to worry about, Forbes said – like finding jobs, getting children settled into school, and obtaining a place to live.
Water safety, on the other hand, is not often a priority, she said.
This is a problem in a state that has plentiful lake, river and ocean access.
New Hampshire Fish and Game reported there had been 13 drowning deaths in 2015 in New Hampshire as of last August. The average is six to eight a year.
“Not all of the new families moving here have a had a chance to swim before or been around big bodies of water,” Forbes said.
Forbes said her organization tried to focus the swimming program on students who could be “at risk” for experiencing dangerous situations on the water.
“We targeted kids who maybe spend a lot of time at home by themselves, and so if they were to go swimming, they may not have an adult with them,” she said.
Gopal Timsina, 16, of Nepal has lived in Concord for eight years now. While he had swam before, he had never had taken official lessons.
“In the past, I had learned a little bit, and now I feel a little more confident in the water,” he said.
Timsina said no one else in his family knows how to swim, but after he finishes the course at the YMCA, he might teach them.
Bonnett said the swimming lessons are all about the YMCA doing its part for the community.
“With everything negative that’s going on in the world, this is something positive we can do to make things a little bit better.”
(Leah Willingham can be reached at 369-3305 or lwillgham@cmonitor.com or on Twitter @LeahMWillingham.)