On June 22, the “World’s Largest Swim Lesson” will take place once again across 20 countries on five continents. For the eighth year, the promotional event will be working toward one goal: reach more than one billion with the message “Swimming Lesson Save Lives” by 2019.
According to the WLSL website, the event is held to spread knowledge of both swimming and drowning to as many people as possible. Swim lessons decrease the risk of drowning by 88 percent, so the WLSL organization is hoping to teach kids everywhere how to swim.
Over the course of 24 hours, host aquatic facilities will teach swim lessons across the United States and the globe. Last year, 40,000 kids and adults participated in WLSL events in 24 countries. Locations ranged from U.S. states to Jamaica, Brazil, Mexico, Australia, the UAE, South Korea and more.
This year, many facilities are currently preparing for the event and looking for swim instructors. Arizona, one of the nation’s leading drowning-rate states, is doing their part to change this statistic. According to the Drowning Prevention Coalition of Arizona, the state lost 18 children and 32 adults to drowning in 2016 alone.
However, DPCA President Melissa Sutton said that promotional events such as the WLSL can make a positive impact on these numbers,
“When organizations like DPCA and WLSL join together as one voice, on one day with the same message, this is when major impact, awareness and lifesaving happens,” she said. “We hope to drive home the message that learning to swim is just as important to injury prevention and general safety as wearing a helmet when riding a bike or wearing a seat belt when riding in a car.”
As Sutton said, the WLSL focuses on having one streamlined message for the media. Last year, the WLSL generated over 200 million media impressions. Highlights from the day can be found below, and feature some pretty well-known swimming figures in Rowdy Gaines and Janet Evans:
These combined efforts have made the program successful in previous years, and the campaign hopes to continue this progress through at least the next two years.
The WLSL is one of many water safety promotions highlighted this year, especially as the Water Safety Month comes to a close.
وين الموقع
It’s awesome.