BROWARD COUNTY, Fla. – Florida leads the nation in child drownings. We are surrounded by beautiful bodies of water and its why swim safety is more than a story. It’s a priority for us.
This month, Local 10 is launching a new, station-wide campaign called “Swim South Florida.” The campaign will be spearheaded by Local 10 anchor and mom, Nicole Perez. It’s designed to raise awareness and save lives.
This week, Nicole spoke with Lt. Ken Roland with Broward County’s SWIM Central program. Roland has made it his mission to teach children life-saving skills in the water and has taught swim classes for decades.
“I am going to make people safer in the water. I can’t make you absolutely safe, but I certainly can make you safer. It won’t be too much to ask every child to become a swimmer and make every American a swimmer for life,’ said Roland.
Life has not always been easy for Lt. Roland. At one point, he had to re-learn how to walk.
“On Nov. 19, 1980, I was in a bad car accident and had a near death experience. I saw the light and I was told to teach people lifesaving skills and I asked the question why I was good at swimming. Because I’m going to use that, skill to help people all over the world,” said Roland.
His ability to swim never left him, so he told Nicole he decided to share that gift with others.
According to the CDC, African American families are five times more likely to drown. Lt. Roland said it sometimes starts with the parents.
“A lot of times parents don’t know how to swim they keep their kids away from the water as well,” said Roland.
Cost is another deterrent for families because swim classes can be very expensive.
“One of the things that we do is we offer these classes for the free! Did you hear me? For the free,” said Roland.
Swim Central classes are indoors, so the kids never have to worry about rain or classes being canceled.
Former State Representative Bobby Dubose and his wife Yvette enrolled their 10-year-old son Jacob in Lt. Roland’s class and said he learned how to swim in five days.
“I love it. If you look at the kids, they tell the story. As a parent no greater joy to see your kid master a skill that’s life saving and have so much fun and enjoy it,” said Bobby Dubose.
“Every time we had a water activity, we put floaties on him, but every time we heard a news story about preventable death involving a tragic drowning. So, my husband and I were like we have to put him in lessons. The lessons he’s taking here have been amazing he’s swimming in less than a week,” said Yvette Dubose.
The classes consist of 30-minute lessons focused on water safety, and 30 minutes of fun, every other day for two weeks.
“We’ve trained 700,000 children in this program. The thing is, as they go through the program, there have been no drownings whatsoever,” said Roland.
Lt. Roland invites the whole family to take part in the lessons and water fun.
“We take everybody from all over the world. If you come and have a desire to learn how to swim, we will teach you life savings skills for the free! I did say for the free. Don’t worry about money! Just come and we are going teach you how to swim!” said Roland.
For more information about signing up for swim lessons near you, click on this link.
Swim South Florida consists of public service announcements and news stories that will air on Local 10 News and across all our digital platforms.
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