Wayne County’s Family Aquatic Center at Chandler Park established its inaugural year as the official host location for The World’s Largest Swimming Lesson™ (WLSL) in 2013. This fun filled event provided swimming and water safety training as participants flutter kicked their way toward a new Guinness World record™.
The nation’s top water safety and training organizations joined forces to present The World’s Largest Swimming Lesson™ (WLSL), Tuesday, on June 18, to build awareness about the vital importance of teaching children to swim in an effort to help prevent drowning. On June 18, waterparks, pools and other aquatic facilities around the globe hosted local WLSL lessons simultaneously at 11a.m. ET (3 p.m. GMT) in an attempt to break the Guinness World Record™.
In 2010, the Inaugural WLSL event established the Guinness World Record for the largest simultaneous swimming lesson ever conducted. Since then, more than 300 facilities representing 15 countries on 5 continents, including 45 states in the US, have participated and logged more than 24,000 kids and adults being part of the swim lesson that sends the message “Swimming Lessons Saves Lives.”™
Swimming is a life-saving skill for children and a vital tool to prevent drowning, the second leading cause of injury-related death for children ages 1-14. Research shows if a child doesn’t learn to swim by the third grade, they likely never will.
The World’s Largest Swimming Lesson™ was created to serve as a platform to help local community aquatic facilities and the many different national, regional and state wide water safety and drowning prevention organizations work together to tell this important story on a local and national level.
Olympic Gold Medalists and official WLSL spokespersons Rowdy Gaines and Janet Evans championed the events to help convey that loss of life from drowning can be prevented through awareness and training. As parents, both athletes feel a strong commitment to teaching children how to be safe in and around the water.
Mark C. Smith, CPA, CPO, Mico Management president, said, “Just as parents know the importance of having helmets when riding a bycycle, swimming lessons are an equally important water safety and awareness precaution.”
Disney’s Typhoon Lagoon Waterpark near Orlando served as the official headquarters for the international event and set an individual Guinness World Record™ for the largest swimming lesson ever held at one location with over 600 participants. International support is showing strong growth with the largest number of participants coming from Mexico and Brazil.
The Family Aquatic Center at Chandler Park offers swimming lessons for much of the summer. The lessons are available in two-week increments and started on June 24 and will run until August 16. The two-week programs cost $50 for Wayne County residents and $60 for non Wayne County residents.
For more information, contact the Family Aquatic Center at Chandler Park at (313) 822-7655 or go to the website at: www.cpwaterpark.com. Information on other programs from Wayne County Parks is available by calling Wayne County Parks at (734) 261-1900 or
visit www.waynecounty.com.
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