My name is Stevie DuPree and the reason I created this site is because this topic is very important to me and what I do. Growing up I was always around the water whether it was at the beach or the pool. Swimming came very natural to me and I started to swim competively around the age of 7 and have been doing it ever since. I love swimming, always have and always will, but it isn't always all fun and games. When I was younger I lost a classmate because he drowned in his pool in his backyard. I will never forget that day we were told what had happened to him. It was tragic and something no one and no family should ever have to go through.
Once I started to get older I was given the opportunity through my swim team to join a program called LAPS. LAPS was an organization created to give swimming lessons to kids that attened title one schools. We gave them to these kids for free before practice a couple times a week. It was amazing to see how much the kids loved it and how their confidence grew in the water. This organization became very important to me, I loved it because no child should be afraid of the water.
After graduating high school I became a swim coach for a swim team that was in the back of my neighborhood over the summer. I loved it and the kids loved me. It was one of the most rewarding things teaching those kids how to swim or how to swim better and faster. I then started to give my own swimming lessons to close family and friends, starting with my 2 year old brother at the time. We have a pool in my backyard at home and it made my family very nervous once he started to become more mobile. So I started to give my brother lessons in our pool every other day. By the time he was about three and a half he was swimming on his own in the pool with a noodle, but we still watched him pretty carefully. Now at the age of 4 he swims all on his own without anything and we trust him.
No parent should ever have to constantly panic and worry that their child has a chance of falling into a pool and drowning. If you take all of the right pre-cautions and get your child swimming lessons you won't have to worry as much all the time and will know your child is safe.