On April 27, the University of Minnesota-Twin Cities hosted a free-to-attend Water Safety Festival at the Jean K. Freeman Aquatics Center. Tucked between the large stadiums and massive lecture halls on campus, the center hosted various booths and demonstrations related to water safety. They provided free swimming clinics and lessons, water games and activities as well as information on general safety in swimming. Park was one of the many sponsors at the event, promoting the use of our district’s pools.
Festival aquatics director Linda McKee said the festival allows the community to explore various opportunities surrounding swimming. McKee said the festival is important as many organizations work to educate people on swimming.
“It’s the fifth year we’ve been doing it, and it’s a way for us to invite the public in to see all of the different aquatics and safety providers that we have in the metro area,” McKee said. “We’ve got great partnerships with the Hennepin County Sheriff’s Office, Sigma Gamma Rho, V3 and SwimPossible, all kinds of organizations that are working hard to promote water safety in the Twin Cities because it’s hugely important everyone feels safe around our waters and the lakes.”
Park alumni Alyssa Crump said water safety is important due to the high risks associated with swimming when people aren’t properly educated. Crump said Park is hoping to help more people learn through their swim lessons.
“Overall, it’s important for everybody to learn how to swim because it’s such an important life skill,” Crump said. “There are so many deaths related to drowning just because people don’t know how to swim. We’re hoping that we can reach more people and give more people — kids and adults — opportunities to learn how to swim.”
Hennepin County Special Lieutenant Deputy of the Water Patrol Division Jason Johnson said the sheriffs were at the festival to help teach the rules and regulations of water safety and how they should be enforced. Johnson said they also showed off the department’s diving equipment and how it works.
“We’re helping present some of the roles that the sheriff’s office fulfills when it comes to water safety,” Johnson said. “We’ve got a lot of preventative measures. We talk about making sure that kids have somebody watching them when they’re in the water. (We’re) big on boat safety, life jackets and VFDs (variable frequency drive motors). Thankfully, it’s not wintertime anymore right now, but also ice safety, and we also have demonstrations by our dive team. We did a quick demonstration of our equipment, as far as what the diver wears, what the surface support uses and how they work together to either find evidence or victims and bring it back up.”
Park’s pools are used year-round by a variety of teams to train and compete in swimming-related events. Crump said one goal of the event was to get more people to join these teams and use Park’s pool.
“For the synchronized swimming team and Minnesota aquafins, we’re always looking for more people. This is a great opportunity to be able to reach new audiences and bring more people to come try our sport,” Crump said.
One big goal of the festival is to make swimming accessible for everyone. According to McKee, swimming has historically faced challenges surrounding the sport’s inaccessibility in the Twin Cities. McKee said the various organizations at the event are working to make swimming more prevalent in these communities.
“Historically, inner-city communities, communities with a lot of African American and minority populations, just haven’t had access to pools,” McKee said. “When you don’t have access to something, whether there are people interested or not, it’s not easy to get it. It’s been economically difficult for people to get to pools and even just physically difficult for people to get to pools. It’s super important that we have a lot of these BIPOC (black, indigenous, person of color) organizations, like V3 and Sigma Gamma Row, just bringing it (swimming) to the forefront, that we have these communities that are very historically underserved. Now I can come to see a swim instructor who looks like me. I can see someone on a swim team that I can relate to.”
Johnson said he hopes families at the event go home and reflect on their own water safety practices. He said it’s important to know the safety of the water and if everyone can swim.
“(I hope everyone) takes a quick second to think about what you’re doing as far as, ‘Is it safe for me to get in the water?,’ ‘am I able to swim?,’ ‘are the people I’m with able to swim?’ and ‘if there is any kind of an issue, who do I contact?’ Stuff like that,” Johnson said.
