With the goal of keeping children safe and preventing drowning tragedies in District One, Miami-Dade County Commissioner Barbara J. Jordan provided two municipalities with a total of $5,000 to teach children how to swim.
The city of Miami Gardens received $3,000 and the city of Opa-locka received $2,000. With summer winding down, children are still near bodies of water that could prove disastrous if they try to swim without the proper training.
“This funding will go a long way toward protecting our young residents from aquatic accidents,” Jordan said. “Training is key to a child’s survival. If children know how to swim, the chances are greater that they will be able to survive if they are in danger of drowning.”
According to Jim O’Connor of the Miami-Dade Parks, Recreation and Open Spaces Department, 45 people drowned in Miami-Dade County in 2014.
The Miami-Dade Drowning Prevention Coalition suggests the following life-saving tips: Provide constant adult supervision; if a child is missing, look for them in the pool or spa first; have at least a 4-foot fence around the pool with self-closing and self-latching gates; install alarms for doors and windows leading to water; learn CPR and basic life-saving skills; have rescue equipment on hand; have a telephone and emergency action plan by the pool; empty all tubs, buckets, containers and wading pools after use, store them upside down and out of children's reach, and install and maintain drain covers that prevent entrapment and entanglement. In addition, all adults and children should learn how to swim.