Team Horner’s spiritual mission, to help make Every Child a Swimmer, has made great strides in Florida in the past several years and is now gaining attention and action outside the state.
The Every Child a Swimmer Program, a division of the International Swimming Hall of Fame, provides low to no-cost scholarships to swim schools to fund lessons for low-income families and also advocates for life saving legislation. The program awarded $550,000 in 2022 towards those swim lessons.
In 2021, with the leadership of Dr. Bill Kent, CEO of Team Horner, the Every Child a Swimmer legislation was passed in the state of Florida. It requires all schools in the state to provide parents, when they initially enroll their child in school, with information on the important role water safety education courses and swimming lessons play in saving lives. It also requires schools to include info on local options for age-appropriate swim lessons and how they can receive those lessons for free or at a reduced cost.
This life-saving legislation has now passed in Georgia and Arkansas as well! Every Child a Swimmer’s Program Manager, Casey McGovern has unwavering passion and persistence due to her personal experience of losing her daughter, Edna Mae, to drowning in 2009. She and her husband committed their lives to educating others of the risk factors associated to drowning so they never experience the same heartache their family has endured.
McGovern was there when Governor Brian Kemp signed the Every Child A Swimmer bill into law in Georgia on May 4th. And she was present again, along with Kent and Mike Dooley, Team Horner President and COO, on May 17th when the same bill was signed into law in Arkansas by Governor Sarah Huckabee Sanders.
Every Child a Swimmer strives to get this legislation passed in all 50 states, as well as spread education and help fund swim lessons around the world. It’s imperative that every child in the world is educated in water safety and has access to local lessons.
Every child deserves to learn this basic survival skill. You can help donate today at https://everychildaswimmer.org/donate/. If you are in need of lessons, you can find a swim school who is offering scholarships based on financial need here: https://everychildaswimmer.org/find-a-lesson/.
