On Thursday, June 26, dozens of individuals participated in an event aimed at saving lives. The World’s Largest Swim Lesson was held locally at OC Waterpark, attracting over 80 participants in total. The global initiative took place at pools, waterparks, and other aquatic facilities around the world to raise vital awareness about the importance of swimming safety and drowning prevention.
This year’s event in Ocean City welcomed several local organizations and first responders. Officials from Shore Medical Center were on site, providing parkgoers with sunscreen and safety information, while the Ocean City Police Department showed off its new drone technology, intended to help ocean swimmers in distress. The Ocean City Beach Patrol and Cooper Health were also in attendance.
Judith Leblein Josephs is on the board of the New Jersey Swim Safety Alliance (NJSSA), an organization dedicated to promoting water safety throughout the Garden State. She began her career as a municipal recreation director and has worked with waterparks around the world. “It’s just been in my blood,” she explained. “I learned to swim for ten cents a day in the city of Newark.”
In recent weeks, the NJSSA released its very first Water Safety Strategy, a statewide plan to lower the number of drownings by the year 2030. The organization is hoping to reduce that number by 30%. New Jersey has become the third state in the country to create and develop a water safety plan, with input garnered from 200 stakeholders.
According to a 2021 study by the American Academy of Pediatrics, drowning has become the leading cause of unintended death among children between the ages of 1 and 14. On an international level, the World Health Organization estimates that over 230,000 individuals lost their lives to drowning in 2019 alone.
In addition to water safety initiatives, there has been a need for more swimming pools within cities and urban communities, ensuring that kids have a place to stay cool in the summertime. “It is an oasis; for a kid in the city in a heat emergency, they need to be there. They need to be getting swimming lessons, and (cities) are substituting them,” Josephs emphasized. “Eliminating city pools takes (away) the opportunity for kids to get in swim lessons.”
Last year, the Swim Safety Alliance teamed up with the New Jersey Recreation and Park Alliance to collect and distribute 3,300 new bathing suits for children up and down the state. The initiative has allowed more kids and young adults to take part in swimming lessons. Joseph commented, “It has saved the day for a lot of kids.”
What initially began as a worldwide attempt at a Guinness World Record has turned into a global phenomenon. According to the WLSL website, the goal is to encourage swimming lessons and promote programs to help save lives.
Photos by Steffen Klenk
