Free water fun for children has serious message

WHEEE: Young Masterton people enjoying the Lands Trust Masterton funded free week of swimming in January. Another week is in the offing. PHOTO/SUPPLIED

A $30,000 grant from Lands Trust Masterton will fund a major water safety and learn-to-swim programme for children along with a week's free swimming for everyone at the Masterton pools early next year.

A joint initiative between the community-owned trust and Leisure Management will provide several programmes that will allow more than 450 children to get instruction in water safety or swimming lessons in January and February.

To complete the programme public entry to the rec centre indoor and outdoor pools and hydro slides will be free for a week, beginning on January 18.

A single two-and-a-half hour school holiday family water safety programme will provide 100 spaces for children of school-age from January 13-17 where, together with a parent or caregiver, they will work with an instructor through five different water safety exercises.

The same programme will be run for 200 Masterton school children early in the first term.

An intensive programme of swimming lessons for school-age children who have not previously had formal lessons will be available to 125 children between January 21-24 and during the first school term to five children from each of nine Masterton primary schools.

The programme is an extension of the highly successful free swimming week funded by a Lands Trust Masterton grant of $12,000 in January this year which saw 7000 people use the Masterton pools - 4800 more than would usually be the case at that time of year.

Lands Trust Masterton grants committee chair Christine Brewster said the programmes would raise the level of water safety and swimming skills of Masterton children.

"Research shows that in 2010, 80 per cent of 10 year olds could not swim well enough to save themselves,"