LOS ANGELES, California, June 5. AS public pools open across Los Angeles for the summer season, the LA84 Foundation is doing its part to promote swim safety. <\/p>\n
The statistics are staggering — 70% of African American children and 60% of Latino children cannot swim, and according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, approximately 10 people drown every day in the United States. Participation in formal swimming lessons can reduce the likelihood of drowning by 88%, according to a study by Pediatrics & Adolescent Medicine. <\/p>\n
The LA84 Foundation, endowed with surplus funds from the 1984 Olympic Games, is providing over $400,000 in grants to fund swim lessons and organized sports in public pools in 14 different local municipalities, which will help reach 15,000 children across the region.<\/p>\n
Special guest Janet Evans, an Olympic gold medalist swimmer and mother to two young children, will speak about the importance of teaching children how to swim. <\/p>\n
Evans posted on her Facebook that she is “…Honored to be part of this great event and working with the LA84 Foundation to help reduce the risk of drowning.”<\/p>\n
Evans will join with International Olympic Committee Member and LA84 Foundation President Anita L. DeFrantz, Los Angeles County Supervisor Mark Ridley‐Thomas, John Wicker of LA Department of Rec & Parks and USA Swimming Foundation Executive Director Debbie Hesse on Friday, June 7 at Alondra Community Regional Park to kick‐off LA84's summer swim program and celebrate the opening of Los Angeles County pools.<\/p>\n
The kick‐off of LA84 Foundation's 28th annual Summer Swim Program will highlight the safety benefits of swim lessons and organized swimming sports for children and detail how parents across the region can find LA84‐funded swim programs this summer.<\/p>\n
The event is being held Friday, June 7, 2013; 1:30 p.m. at the Alondra Community Regional Park, 3850 W. Manhattan Beach Blvd, Lawndale, Ca 90260.<\/p>\n
After the speaking portion of the program, children from local LA84‐funded swim programs will jump in the pool together to celebrate the official opening of the Los Angeles County pools and the kick‐off of LA84's Summer Swim Program. Janet Evans will lead a short lesson for the young swimmers.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
LOS ANGELES, California, June 5. AS public pools open across Los Angeles for the summer season, the LA84 Foundation is doing its part to promote swim safety. The statistics are<\/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":[3,7,4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-34628","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-featured","category-usa","category-zzzzzzzzz"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"yoast_head":"\r\n