WORCESTER — Students may have been hesitant at first but by the end of their swim lesson Tuesday, they were ready to jump in the deep end — figuratively, of course.

Five third-grade classes, three from Chandler Elementary Community School and two from Jacob Hiatt Magnet School, will learn swimming skills and water safety for the next 10 weeks at the YMCA, said Pamela Suprenant, executive director of youth development and community services.

The 40-minute swimming lessons, which run four days per week, will be counted as the students’ physical education course, Suprenant explained.

“This aligns perfectly with our mission,” she said. “This literally is what we’re about — keeping kids safe and healthy. And I think for Worcester having an opportunity for kids who don’t have access to this sort of life-saving skill is key.”

Drownings prompt offerings of free swim lessons

Worcester school officials began looking into offering students free swim lessons after recent and past drownings involving children.

In June, a Worcester police officer, Enmanuel “Manny” Familia, and a young boy, Troy Love, drowned when Familia tried to rescue Love from the water at Green Hill Pond.

The Manny 267 Foundation, started by the officer’s family, aims to provide swimming lessons and safety to kids and teenagers in Worcester by partnering with the YMCA, as well as donating “Manny tubes,” rescue tubes, to police departments across the United States.

Suprenant explained that drowning is one of the leading causes of death for kids.

“The second leading cause of death in kids one to 14 is drowning; 70% of the kids who drown are male,” said Suprenant.

These lessons put kids one step closer to safety, she said.

Forming partnerships to help cover costs

The lessons, which began Monday, cost $13,000, said Superintendent Maureen Binienda.

“We got AbbVie to give us $10,000 and the Worcester Red Sox got us bathing suits,” said Binienda.

Binienda said that other organizations may be interested in forming similar partnerships.

The donation from AbbVie, a pharmaceuticals company, was part of a larger initiative to focus donations on Black and Brown kids in particular, said Andrew Goodearl, a senior director at the research department.

“It’s very heartwarming and it makes some of the impact that you can have with fairly modest effort very impactful, to me personally,” said Goodearl. “It really connects you with the possibilities, I think, of what can be done with focused resources.”

Making a wish list

While AbbVie provided funding for the lessons, the YMCA and the Worcester Red Sox made an effort to provide supplies including bathing suits for the students.

“We made a wish list, put it on Amazon, and in 12 hours, got hundreds of suits, but they didn’t all fit the kids,” said Suprenant. “We reached out to the WooSox and they gathered up the last suits that all of the kids needed so that everybody could be in the pool.”

‘We believe in you’

Alex Richardson, the manager of ballpark and community relations, and also a member of the YMCA board, said that the donation was much deeper than just swimming lessons.

“We’re saying, ‘We believe in you. We want you to learn this. We want you to achieve this,'” Richardson said. “‘We don’t want this to be a barrier for you.’ I think that’s kind of how it becomes full circle for us being a part of the community now.”

As the WooSox Foundation continues to grow, Joe Bradlee, vice president of baseball operations and community relations, said that the organization wants to continue supporting kids in Worcester.

“I think as our WooSox Foundation grows, you’re going to continue to see us supporting more youth throughout the city,” said Bradlee.

Binienda is not alone in wanting to see the number of swim lessons available to students in the Worcester public school system increase.

Expanding program to other communities

David Connell, president and CEO of YMCA of Central Massachusetts, hopes to see programs like this expand to other locations including Fitchburg, Southbridge and Leominster.

“We see opportunities in our Greendale location to be able to do this,” said Connell. “Providing transportation can be arranged for the students to come. We see a continuation of processes that we can do some of this after hours, after school, weekends.”

For the next 10 weeks, students will learn about breath control, floating not using flotation devices and other skills, as well as how they can help themselves and others if they find themselves in a dangerous situation, said Aquatics Director Barbara Suprenant.

“There are too many accidents,” said Suprenant. “I have found through my teaching that many cultural things of, ‘Don’t go near the water. You don’t need to know how to swim,’ and the majority of the accidents that happen are those that never intended to go into the water.”

She said that despite being scared, students were still willing to try and get in the water, even being sad to have to get out at the end of the lesson.

“I am completely blown away at how well they did,” said Suprenant. “I told one of the teachers from the school I had goosebumps, and it’s not because the water was cold. I was so thrilled to see what they accomplished.”