TUSTIN, Calif., June 22. FIFTY years of swimming instruction, from tiny infants to adults and every age in between, will be celebrated with a fifties-style pool party on Saturday, July 1, at Blue Buoy Swim School in Tustin. The open house from 10:00 am to 5:00 pm is free and open to past and present students and teachers from the 50\u2019s, 60\u2019s, 70\u2019s, 80\u2019s, 90\u2019s and 2000\u2019s. <\/p>\n
It will feature popular pastimes from the school\u2019s earliest days in 1956, including hula hoops, live entertainment from local a cappella singers \u201cThe Day Dreamers,\u201d food, swimming, and more. The event is dedicated to Blue Buoy founders Mel and Doris Maxwell, whose dream of educating all ages on a safe love of the water, and to all of the instructors through the decades who helped make the dream a reality. <\/p>\n
The oldest family-run swim school in the county and Tustin Chamber of Commerce\u2019s 2005 Small Business of the Year, Blue Buoy\u2019s more than 200,000 students have learned how to stay safer in the pool, perfected swimming technique, and for some, have gone on to compete in the Olympic Games. A variety of local swimming greats who first learned to swim at Blue Buoy have been invited to the birthday reunion, including 100-meter freestyle American record holder Jason Lezak (four-time medalist in 2000 and 2004 Olympics); Amy White Balladis (200 Backstroke silver medalist in 1984 Olympics); Gavin Arroyo (member of U.S. water polo team in 1996 and 2000 Olympics); Mike Cavic (2000 and 2004 Olympics); Chad Hundeby (former world-record holder for swimming the English Channel); former 100-meter breaststroke world-record holder Jessica Hardy; Lyndsay De Paul (2005 Orange County Girls Swimmer of the Year); David Mikesell (2005 Orange County Coach of the Year for girls\u2019 water polo); Ashley De Paul (3 time USA Masters National Record Holder); and Grace Reynolds (2005 Orange County High School Girls Water Polo Player of the Year).<\/p>\n
\u201cFor 50 years our mission has been not only to develop safer swimmers but to instill a love of the water in each of our students, and we believe in the school motto of \u2018great beginnings lead to great finishes\u2019,\u201d said Johnny Johnson. \u201cIt is so exciting to look back on our five decades in this business and realize that we\u2019re now teaching second and sometimes third generations of children how to swim. That\u2019s a tremendous confirmation of what we\u2019ve been trying to accomplish.\u201d<\/p>\n
Through the past several years Johnny and his wife Cindy, co-owners of Blue Buoy Swim School, have moved beyond instruction and into water safety advocacy. In addition to managing the swim school and spending most of his time in the water as an instructor, Johnson has developed a drowning prevention campaign called \u201cSafer 3,\u201d consisting of \u201csafer water (guarding against unauthorized entry to a pool or spa by a child with few swimming skills), safer kids (advocating constant adult supervision and swim lessons), and safer response (preparation for the possibility of a drowning incident by learning and reviewing CPR).\u201d The curriculum, endorsed by the Orange County Fire Authority, is shared with the community through schools and events that fire personnel sponsor. <\/p>\n
The fact that drowning continues to be a leading cause of accidental death for children under age five in the United States prompted the Johnsons to develop the Swim for Life Foundation to further promote the Safer 3 message in an ongoing educational campaign across the country.<\/p>\n
Johnson is a founding member of the board of directors for the National Drowning Prevention Alliance and a charter member and past president of the U.S. Swim School Association (USSSA). He is also a former co-chair of the USSSA Infant-Toddler Committee and co-author of the USSSA Infant-Toddler Certification Course that has been taken by thousands of instructors worldwide.<\/p>\n
Blue Buoy Swim School\u2019s community longevity and instructional excellence has been recognized at the national level, as the school\u2019s original owners, Mel and Doris Maxwell, were inducted into the USSSA Hall of Fame. Johnson has continued that legacy with his induction in October 2004.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
TUSTIN, Calif., June 22. FIFTY years of swimming instruction, from tiny infants to adults and every age in between, will be celebrated with a fifties-style pool party on Saturday, July<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"dois","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[7,4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-11494","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-usa","category-zzzzzzzzz"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"yoast_head":"\r\n