
{"id":20335,"date":"2011-08-18T12:25:58","date_gmt":"2011-08-18T16:25:58","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.carrborocitizen.com\/main\/?p=20335"},"modified":"2011-08-18T12:36:51","modified_gmt":"2011-08-18T16:36:51","slug":"from-belly-flops-to-swan-dives","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.ibiblio.org\/carrborocitizen\/main\/2011\/08\/18\/from-belly-flops-to-swan-dives\/","title":{"rendered":"From belly flops to swan dives"},"content":{"rendered":"<figure id=\"attachment_20367\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-20367\" style=\"width: 400px\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\"><a href=\"http:\/\/www.carrborocitizen.com\/main\/2011\/08\/18\/from-belly-flops-to-swan-dives\/swimming1\/\" rel=\"attachment wp-att-20367\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/www.carrborocitizen.com\/main\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/08\/Swimming1.jpg\" alt=\"\" title=\"\" width=\"400\" height=\"266\" class=\"size-full wp-image-20367\" \/><\/a><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-20367\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">PHOTO BY BARBARA TYROLER. Community children learn to swim in the Hargraves Community Center\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s summer camp swimming program. <\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p><strong>By Teri Saylor<br \/>\n<\/strong><em>Correspondent<\/em><\/p>\n<p>Jayla Byrd has earned the nickname \u00e2\u20ac\u0153Aquawoman,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d and certainly feels like a superhero, having progressed from being terrified to put her face in the water to being able to dive into the deep end of a pool in just one summer.<\/p>\n<p>\u00e2\u20ac\u0153Before I took swimming lessons, I was scared,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d she said. \u00e2\u20ac\u0153I wasn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t used to the water and I was afraid I would drown.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d<\/p>\n<p>Jayla celebrated her 9th birthday by diving into water 12 feet deep at the A.D. Clark Pool at the Hargraves Community Center, where she participated in the center\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s summer camp program.<\/p>\n<p>\u00e2\u20ac\u0153The first times I tried to dive, I always did belly flops,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d she said.<\/p>\n<p>Jayla goes in head-first now, and she knows how to make her way to the surface.<\/p>\n<p>\u00e2\u20ac\u0153I kick my feet and push up, and then my head comes out,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d she said.<\/p>\n<p>Jayla is one of 160 Chapel Hill campers who had a chance to learn to swim or improve their swimming skills at no cost this summer at the Hargraves Center.<\/p>\n<p>The Chapel Hill Parks and Recreation Department tried out a free swimming program for their community campers in anticipation of becoming a local partner in USA Swimming\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s Make A Splash Foundation, a national child-focused water-safety initiative.<\/p>\n<p>\u00e2\u20ac\u0153We have an engaged audience,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d said Lizzie Burrill, assistant aquatic supervisor. \u00e2\u20ac\u0153Over the years, we have seen campers who can\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t swim in the deep end. This is the first summer we have offered swimming lessons at the summer camp.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d<\/p>\n<p>Burrill has proclaimed the program, which ended last month, a success, and hopes to expand to the entire community next year.<\/p>\n<p>\u00e2\u20ac\u0153Our goal is to become part of the Make A Splash Foundation, and its programs will be offered to anyone in Orange County,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d Burrill said.<\/p>\n<p>USA Swimming created Make A Splash because of high drowning rates. Nine people drown daily in the U.S., and drowning is the second-leading cause of accidental death among children under the age of 14, according to Make A Splash. The organization\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s mission is to create opportunities for children to learn to swim by the third grade. <\/p>\n<p><strong>Believers<br \/>\n<\/strong>With the help of people like Karysha Reid, Make A Splash\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s goals become more possible. As one of the camp counselors with the Hargraves program, Reid is a believer.<\/p>\n<p>A lifelong swimmer, she would like for everyone in the world to learn to love swimming as much as she does.<\/p>\n<p>\u00e2\u20ac\u0153I was a total water baby,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d she said. \u00e2\u20ac\u0153When I was 2, I cried when my parents would not let me swim in rain puddles.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d<\/p>\n<p>An ambitious youngster, Reid, now 24, was on a mission to be a lifeguard for Chapel Hill Parks and Recreation, so she saved her babysitting money for lifesaving lessons, and the day she turned 15, old enough to become a certified lifeguard, she took the test, claimed her job and hasn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t stopped since. <\/p>\n<p>A junior at UNC-Greensboro, she is majoring in health studies and plans to pursue a master\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s degree in aqua therapy.<\/p>\n<p>\u00e2\u20ac\u0153Learning to swim and knowing how to swim is a life skill,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d she said. \u00e2\u20ac\u0153Swimming is therapeutic, so lovely. Just learning the basics and refining your skills makes swimming easy.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d<\/p>\n<p><strong>Capturing the moment<br \/>\n<\/strong>Specializing in water portraits, Chapel Hill artist Barbara Tyroler embraced the Hargraves Center swimming program, capturing the joyful faces of kids having fun in the pool.<\/p>\n<p>\u00e2\u20ac\u0153With grant support from the Orange County Arts Commission, I have documented my most favorite subject: people in the pool with an emphasis on community,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d she wrote in an email.<\/p>\n<p>Chapel Hill Cultural Arts administrator Jeff York and Chapel Hill Aquatics supervisor Robb English are collaborating with Tyroler to set up a permanent installation of her work at the Homestead Aquatic Center.<\/p>\n<p>\u00e2\u20ac\u0153At the Homestead Aquatic Center, I hope to enhance the feeling of community and celebrate health and beauty. The grant will also fund portrait gifts for the young swimmers and their families and publicity photos for the summer camp program,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d she said.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Superstars<br \/>\n<\/strong>Chapel Hill\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s newest crop of swimmers are believers, and even though summer is winding down, Jayla\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s mom, Marie Dean, is preparing to enroll her daughter in fall lessons so she can continue her progress in the pool.<\/p>\n<p>\u00e2\u20ac\u0153I hope Jayla will start swimming year round,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d Dean said.<\/p>\n<p>Words like that make Burrill happy.<\/p>\n<p>\u00e2\u20ac\u0153I love working with the community and providing an outlet for people to gain new skills,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d she said.<\/p>\n<p>Reid, who calls herself the strict mama bear of the pool scene, is proud of her little cubs.<\/p>\n<p>Among her level-one kids, most were afraid to even put their faces in the water.<\/p>\n<p>\u00e2\u20ac\u0153We started out by blowing bubbles in the water and by the end of the sessions, all of them were putting their faces in the water,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d she said.<\/p>\n<p>Her level-two kids enjoyed improving on the basics.<\/p>\n<p>\u00e2\u20ac\u0153They passed their swim test; they learned how to dive and they learned how to do flip turns,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d she said.<\/p>\n<p>The 2012 Olympics in London are right around the corner, and the athletes who make the USA team started out as beginners.<\/p>\n<p>Will a future Olympian come out of Chapel Hill\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s swimming program?<br \/>\nReid can\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t predict the future, but she is certain about one thing.<\/p>\n<p>\u00e2\u20ac\u0153All my kids are superstars.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d<\/p>\n<figure id=\"attachment_20337\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-20337\" style=\"width: 400px\" class=\"wp-caption alignleft\"><a href=\"http:\/\/www.carrborocitizen.com\/main\/2011\/08\/18\/from-belly-flops-to-swan-dives\/swimming21\/\" rel=\"attachment wp-att-20337\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/www.carrborocitizen.com\/main\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/08\/Swimming21.jpg\" alt=\"\" title=\"Swimming21\" width=\"400\" height=\"266\" class=\"size-full wp-image-20337\" \/><\/a><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-20337\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">PHOTO BY BARBARA TYROLER. Oswaldo Reyes, 6, learns to swim with instructor Karysha Reid.  <\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<figure id=\"attachment_20338\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-20338\" style=\"width: 400px\" class=\"wp-caption alignleft\"><a href=\"http:\/\/www.carrborocitizen.com\/main\/2011\/08\/18\/from-belly-flops-to-swan-dives\/swimming31\/\" rel=\"attachment wp-att-20338\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/www.carrborocitizen.com\/main\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/08\/Swimming31.jpg\" alt=\"\" title=\"Swimming31\" width=\"400\" height=\"266\" class=\"size-full wp-image-20338\" \/><\/a><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-20338\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">PHOTO BY BARBARA TYROLER. Kory Bunn has some fun in the pool while improving his swimming skills during the Hargraves Community Center\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s summer camp swimming program.  <\/figcaption><\/figure>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Jayla Byrd has earned the nickname \u00e2\u20ac\u0153Aquawoman,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d and certainly feels like a superhero<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":12,"featured_media":20336,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4,30],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-20335","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news","category-top-story"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ibiblio.org\/carrborocitizen\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20335","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ibiblio.org\/carrborocitizen\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ibiblio.org\/carrborocitizen\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ibiblio.org\/carrborocitizen\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/12"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ibiblio.org\/carrborocitizen\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=20335"}],"version-history":[{"count":11,"href":"https:\/\/www.ibiblio.org\/carrborocitizen\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20335\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":20372,"href":"https:\/\/www.ibiblio.org\/carrborocitizen\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20335\/revisions\/20372"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ibiblio.org\/carrborocitizen\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/20336"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ibiblio.org\/carrborocitizen\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=20335"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ibiblio.org\/carrborocitizen\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=20335"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ibiblio.org\/carrborocitizen\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=20335"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}