Learning to Float: Camp Fire Partners with APU to Teach Water Safety
Free swimming lessons at Alaska Pacific University help our afterschool kids learn confidence and safety in the water.
“I was medium‑brave,” a kindergartner modestly reflects after her swimming lesson. She had just learned to float on her back, a milestone for a child who shook like a leaf and cried in the pool on her first day.
She was one of 17 kids in the water that afternoon. Some gathered floating balls into a bucket, dog‑paddling with pool noodles, while the intermediate group dove for rings on the bottom. Nearby, two kids swam laps—one of them with an impressive backstroke. The students were from Camp Fire Alaska’s afterschool program at Scenic Park, taking part in free swim lessons through a partnership with Alaska Pacific University (APU).
Michelle Kateson, APU’s Assistant Director of Recreational Programs, shares the university’s belief that “everybody has a right to learn how to swim. We [at APU] view it the same as everybody has a right to eat food. Especially here in Alaska.”
The swimmers were group based on skill level. While safety skills were core to each lesson, having fun was key!
A Focus on Safety…
Funded by a grant APU received from the CDC Foundation and Bloomberg Philanthropies, the lessons support a pilot program to build strategies for drowning prevention in states with high rates. Alaska, with our extreme weather, remoteness, and reliance on boats for recreation and transportation, has the highest drowning rate in the country.
The lessons are taught by Miss Debbie, who has 45 years of experience teaching water safety to kids. Last summer, a child fell into deep water and remembered her words: Look to the sky and float. “Floating is the first lesson I teach,” she says.
The kindergartner’s mom heard about all this back home. Her daughter talked about what to do if she fell through ice or if a boat was approaching her in open water. Before she even learned a swim stroke, she learned how to put on a life jacket.
“That, to me, as a parent, was one of the coolest parts,” the mom says. “And she was just so excited and proud of what she was learning.”
Miss Debbie has over 45 years of experience teaching water safety to kids. Past students have credited the skills she taught for saving their lives.
…While Never Forgetting to Have Fun
While the kids are learning critical safety skills, it’s also important to have fun—this is Camp Fire, after all. That’s a measure of success for April Luck, Senior Site Director at Scenic Park and a certified swimming instructor.
“It’s not just the skills that they learn,” April says, “it’s if they want to come back and are excited to learn something new and become more confident in the water. Not all of them hit their markers, but that’s where they are in their swim journey. If they go into the water, they know what to do until help comes.”
Our brave kindergartner is eager to continue her journey, according to her mom.
“The difference between this poor little girl who was terrified of everything involving swimming is now asking to go all the time,” her mom say. “That just speaks a lot to what they taught and how they treated her.”
Another round of lessons will begin this spring, helping more kids at Scenic Park find confidence in the water. April says the first group has been hyping up the lessons and telling their friends not to be scared. It only takes a medium amount of bravery.
Camp Fire Alaska’s licensed afterschool programs provide youth fun and safe spaces to thrive during out-of-school time.
