But every April, college swimming & diving teams are working to end this.
During Adult Learn-to-Swim Month, swimmers and divers provide free lessons to their fellow student-athletes, coaches and staff and help them avoid becoming one of the 3,500 Americans who drown each Summer.
What is it?
Adult Learn-to-Swim Month allows the campus community to interact with its most enthusiastic, smart, and disciplined students. In addition to becoming water save, they see swimmers and divers as more than just anonymous athletes and swimming and diving as more than just another sport.
Lessons generate positive publicity for your team and provide a tangible benefit to your department and campus. Even if you already fund raise through lessons, Adult Learn-to-Swim Month allows you to cross-promote and increase enrollment in your existing paid program.
The Goal
We want to ensure that no student, coach faculty or staff become a statistic. To combat this teams volunteer their time to teach small group or one-on-one lessons to so the target audience for Campus Learn-to-Swim Month is adults. The goal isn’t to maximize the number of people taught, but rather to provide people with a skill that can save their life. Each institution will know its target audience and capacity, but we recommend targeting:
Other student-athletes within your department
Coaches and support staff within your department
Campus-wide faculty, staff and students
What Do I Need?
Participating in Campus Learn-to-Swim Month is easy. All you need is an interest in showing your institution why swimming and diving is the most valuable sport on campus. You will need to do some planning and contribute some time in April. We've created some simple and flexible guidelines and worked with our partners at U.S. Masters Swimming to make it easy for your team to participate.
Download Guidelines | Download Volunteer Instructor Guide | Download Editable Promotional Flyer
Get Started
First - let us know! E-mail Greg Earhart with your dates and locations. We will make sure to help promote you and your team's efforts.
Then - download our recommended guidelines. These will help you plan
U.S. Masters Swimming. offers a very helpful Download Volunteer Instructor Guide. You can also Download Editable Promotional Flyer to help promote your lessons. The USA Swimming Foundation offers you an excellent avenue to promote your lessons. Finally, National Student-Athlete Day is held annually on April 6th.
April, the Perfect Time
Adult Learn-to-Swim Month is designed to be hosted during a natural lull between the end of the championship season and the start of Summer Break. The month-long event is also perfectly situated to tie in with:
National Student-Athlete Day (April 6, 2019)
US Masters Swimming's Learn-to-Swim Month
USA Swimming Foundation's Make-a-Splash Initiative
Strategically, April is the last opportunity for teams to showcase their value before the end of the academic year.