LOUISA COUNTY Va. — Louisa County students are overcoming fears and learning lifesaving skills through a swim program at the Brooks Family YMCA.
The program, a partnership between Louisa County Schools and the YMCA, aims to teach young students how to swim and handle water-related emergencies.
"We have some kids who are terrified of the water," said swim instructor Dani Devere. "who come in and won't put their feet in. But by the end, they're jumping around, bobbing, having fun with the others."
These skills are particularly appreciated by families like the Wileys, who found themselves in a harrowing situation during a trip to the Outer Banks last year.
"While he was swimming, I noticed that (Joel) began to be a little further out in the tide than I would like," dad Preston Wiley said.
Joel got caught in a riptide, and Preston raced to save him.
Both father and son struggled against the powerful current, but they applied what they had learned about riptides.
"The only option I had was to drop down to where I could get footing, throw him back up. And in that time of throwing him back up he had to be the one holding himself above water," Preston Wiley said.
"And they said, 'Well mom, we were taught that through the swim program with the school.' And I was like, that is one of the factors that played a role in saving his life that day," Carrie Wiley said.
Such stories are the reason the program exists, Devere said.
"That's amazing! That's why we do it. It's such a life skill to be used from childhood to adulthood," she said.
The initiative is also a point of pride for local educators.
"As superintendent, it makes you pretty proud to know that you're giving students the opportunity to not only help them through life but maybe even save a life," Doug Straley, superintendent of Louisa County Schools, said.
Louisa County has long focused on non-traditional classes.
"To build on programs that aren't typically traditional, math, science, everything else," Preston Wiley said. "Providing life lessons. I think Louisa County has done a great job of identifying that and this program is an example of that."
The swim program at the YMCA aims to build better minds by equipping students with essential, lifesaving skills.
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