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WEDNESDAY, JUNE 29, 2016
Apple Canyon Lake swimmers participate in world record breaking event By Tony Carton EDITOR
TONY CARTON PHOTO Shopper’s Guide
Apple Canyon Lake staff, property owners and their guests participated in last Saturday’s World’s Largest Swimming Lesson, a global effort promoting water safety.
annual event for us.” 2016 is the seventh year in a row, tens of thousands of kids of all ages joined together at pools, water parks, swim schools, even lake fronts to take time out for a very important lesson. The project is expected to attract more than 45,000 swimmers this year with the first lesson kicking off in Abu Dhabi and traveling through 24 countries in 24 hours. “Swimming lessons are definitely important and I think to be involved with a project like this is a neat thing,” Nordlie said. The Summers family were vacationing at Apple Canyon Lake (ACL) and decided to participate in the project.
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The folks at Apple Canyon Lake have enquiring minds and want to know, “Was it record worthy?” That’s a global question this week, and with the deadline just around the corner for turning in statistics, the The World’s Largest Swimming Lesson™ (WLSL) staff is hard at it tabulating the results for the organization’s seventh attempt at setting a new Guinness World Record™. “We are participating again this year in the World’s Largest Swimming Lesson,” said ACL Aquatics Manager Julie Janssen. “It is a global event that helps promote swimming lessons. Drowning is the second leading cause of childhood death, so the lesson plan they have created helps put that awareness out there for how important it is to have your kids in swimming lessons.” Research shows participation in formal swimming lessons can reduce the risk of drowning by 88% among children ages 1 to 4, however many youngsters do not receive formal swimming or water safety training. “We formally start our swimming lesson season next week and I think today’s event just kind of hypes up everything of how important it is to have swimming lessons, so we don’t have any incidents out here,” Janssen said. No event can succeed without volunteers and ACL provided a veritable army of helpers to see the activity went off without a hitch. In addition to members of the ACL aquatics staff, volunteers were on hand from the facility’s communications department, security department, several residents who acted as witnesses for the official count, and more. “This is our second year with the The World’s Largest Swimming Lesson program,” said ACL General Manager Shaun Nordlie. “This is going on all over the world, so it’s pretty exciting for us; hopefully we’ll get a huge turnout and it will become an
“We’re here on vacation visiting family and our 18- month-old twins Natalie and Jack are having their first experience with formal swimming lessons,” said Schaumburg IL resident Isabella Summers. “We want them to learn how to swim as early as possible, so when we found out about the project we said, ‘Why not,’ and here we are.” She said making it to the Guinness Book of World Records at18 months
old is an added bonus. “Jack is working on having fun, floating and keeping his head above water,” said Summers’ husband Justin. “I took swimming lessons at a young age and I’ve always been comfortable in the water. I want that same feeling of comfort for my kids.” Since its inception, more than 155,000 children and adults have participated in WLSL lessons. This year’s WLSL event has the opportuni-
ty to share the powerful message that Swimming Lessons Save Lives with more people in more countries around the globe than ever before. Congratulations to everyone who took the time to make the Apple Canyon Lake summer experience safer. The numbers are still rolling in, and final tabulations for the WLSL event will post on the organization’s website at http://www.worldslargestswimminglesson.org/
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