{"id":352455,"date":"2026-07-25T22:10:09","date_gmt":"2026-07-25T22:10:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/352455\/"},"modified":"2026-07-25T22:10:09","modified_gmt":"2026-07-25T22:10:09","slug":"south-florida-partners-promote-water-safety-with-free-swim-lessons","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/352455\/","title":{"rendered":"South Florida partners promote water safety with free swim lessons"},"content":{"rendered":"<p class=\"text text--small text--normal text--primary\">Published:\u00a0July 25, 2026 at 5:36 PM<\/p>\n<p class=\"text text--small text--normal text--primary\">Updated:\u00a0July 25, 2026 at 5:49 PM<\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph\">MIAMI-DADE COUNTY, Fla. \u2014 On Saturday, a community pool was packed with kids learning to swim.<\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.local10.com\/espanol\/2026\/07\/25\/promueven-seguridad-en-el-agua-con-clases-gratuitas-de-natacion-en-el-sur-de-florida\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer nofollow noopener\" title=\"https:\/\/www.local10.com\/espanol\/2026\/07\/25\/promueven-seguridad-en-el-agua-con-clases-gratuitas-de-natacion-en-el-sur-de-florida\/\">Leer en espa\u00f1ol<\/a><\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph\">\u201cWater safety is critical at all ages,\u201d said Sheryl Woods, YMCA of South Florida president and chief executive officer.<\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph\">The YMCA of South Florida and The Related Group, along with their partners, brought the Back to School Pool Party to a Cutler Bay neighborhood. They <a href=\"https:\/\/www.floridahealth.gov\/individual-family-health\/child-infant-youth\/drowning-prevention\/swimmingvouchers\/\" target=\"_self\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" title=\"https:\/\/www.floridahealth.gov\/individual-family-health\/child-infant-youth\/drowning-prevention\/swimmingvouchers\/\">provided swim lessons<\/a>, free gear and a new backpack before the start of the next school year for families in need.<\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph\">\u201cIt\u2019s really important for us to be able to provide something like this because it\u2019s something that they are not able to go out and get and be able to pay for on their own,\u201d said Marilyn Pascual, TRG Management co-president.<\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph\">The event comes amid a tragic trend in Florida. Several children have died in drownings over the last few weeks, including two at different lakes behind Plantation homes, while two others drowned in backyard pools.<\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph\">\u201cDrowning is preventable,\u201d Woods said. \u201cWe need adult supervision, number one. Adults should never let kids be in the pool without supervision.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph\">Data shows Florida leads the nation when it comes to child drownings, a statistic organizers hope to find a way to turn the tide.<\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph\">\u201cIf you teach these children how to swim through attrition, they will teach their children how to swim,\u201d Pascual said. \u201cSo it\u2019s like an easy fix, and it\u2019s such an easy fix. Why shouldn\u2019t we do this?\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\ud83c\udfe0 News From Your Neighborhood<\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph b-article-body__copyright\">Copyright 2026 by WPLG Local10.com &#8211; All rights reserved.<\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" data-chromatic=\"ignore\" alt=\"Brett Knese\" class=\"c-image\" loading=\"lazy\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/https:\/\/author-service-images-prod-us-east-1.publishing.aws.arc.pub\/wplginc\/d3b079d0-0444-499b-8cb7-.jpeg\"  width=\"100\" height=\"100\"\/>Brett Knese<\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph b-author-bio__author-description\">Brett Knese joined the Local 10 News team as a general assignment reporter in March 2025.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Published:\u00a0July 25, 2026 at 5:36 PM Updated:\u00a0July 25, 2026 at 5:49 PM MIAMI-DADE COUNTY, Fla. \u2014 On Saturday,&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":352456,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[28,30,29],"class_list":["post-352455","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-florida","tag-florida","tag-florida-headlines","tag-florida-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/352455","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=352455"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/352455\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/352456"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=352455"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=352455"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=352455"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}