wacky wednesday - summer public service announcement #1 - can you swim?

I have lived in the Valley of the Sun essentially my whole life and do not remember a time I could not swim like a fish. My parents were, perhaps, a tad neurotic about water safety and taught my sisters and me to swim about the time we could run. When my husband and I had children, we taught them to swim... like fish... when they were toddlers. Living in an area where approximately 75% of homes have an in-ground pool and where lake communities are prevalent, it seemed like the prudent thing to do. And besides, swimming is fun! In my naiveté, I thought almost everybody knew how to swim at least enough to paddle around a pool.

So it was with interest that I read a recent article in the newspaper (USA Today, 5/20/14) about how many adults can swim well enough to save themselves should they fall in a pool. We are not talking Michael Phelps-type swimming but more like dog paddle-type swimming. I wasn't surprised to read that 80% of adults claim they can swim.

But what made my jaw drop and my eyes as wide as saucers was what came next - "but only 56% (of those 80%) can perform five critical water-safety skills that could save their lives, according to a new American Red Cross survey." And what are those five critical skills?

1. Floating or treading water for one minute without a flotation device
2. Stepping or jumping into water over your head and returning to the surface
3. Treading water or floating in a full circle and then finding a way out of the water
4. Exiting a pool without using a ladder
5. Swimming (as in using any "stroke") 25 yards (the length of a standard pool) without stopping

So how could someone claim to be able to swim and not be able to do these five basic skills? I don't know. And how could an adult who can't save himself rescue his child from a pool? He could not. 

According to a recent Centers for Disease Control report 21,000 children and young adults drowned between 1999 and 2010. Drowning is one of the top three causes of unintentional injury death for people ages 29 and younger. And it is very preventable.

Temperatures are heating up and pools are warming up. If you cannot perform the five critical skills listed above, make this the summer you learn to swim. And while you're at it, take a CPR class (contact your local Red Cross for class information). The life you save may be your own or someone you love.