Splash Zone part of worldwide swimming lesson
Ephrata's Splash Zone
EPHRATA — The Splash Zone will be one of the participating locations in a program designed to emphasize the importance of water safety and swimming lessons at 8 a.m. Friday. The World’s Largest Swimming Lesson (WLSL) participants also are looking to break a world record for the fourth year in a row.
The Splash Zone is located at 780 A St. SE, next to Ephrata Middle School.
Everybody will be in the Ephrata pool, and will be learning to swim, or swim better. “It is a swimming lesson,” Ephrata Parks and Recreation Director Ray Towry said. “Everybody who is participating, all around the world, is teaching the same lesson at the same time,” he said. That means lessons in some parts of the world are going on at midnight, he said.
Kids at the Splash Zone will be able to get a picture with Otto the Otter, the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation spokesotter for water safety. There will be lots of safety materials, including coloring books, Towry said. Each participant will receive a certificate, and hot cocoa and doughnuts will be served.
Along with promoting the value of swim lessons, the idea is to emphasize to parents the need to keep an eye on kids around the water, Towry said. According to the WLSL website, drowning is the second leading cause of accidental death for children to age 14 in the United States.
“Supervision is really the key,” Towry said. Kids, especially little kids, can get in trouble quickly and not have time to attract anybody’s attention, he said.
Between lakes and rivers and irrigation canals, Grant County has a lot of shoreline, Towry said, the third highest shoreline mileage in the state. That provides more opportunity for accidents, he said.
But it’s not just along the lake or at the pool that parents need to be paying attention, he said. For a small child, “half an inch of water in the bathtub is all it takes,” he said.
Kids who want to participate in the World’s Largest Swimming Lesson can register online at ephrata.org, or at the Splash Zone, Towry said.
For event coverage, pick up Monday's Columbia Basin Herald.
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