Kinetico Water Systems partnered with the Geauga Family YMCA to make local students safer in the water this summer.
Kinetico Water Systems partnered with the Geauga Family YMCA to make local students safer in the water this summer.
Kindergarteners in Chardon and Newbury school districts were given water safety training and coupons for free swim lessons redeemable at the YMCA during the summer or fall.
Paul Conley, executive director at the YMCA, credited the Newbury water quality company with providing the financial backing for the program and estimated 200 children were taught by the YMCA’s Aquatic Instructor Jodi Clute, who traveled to the schools in May. Those students will also have the chance to redeem their coupons for a free seven-week swimming course offered at the YMCA throughout the summer and fall.
It is a program Conley built because, in his words, “Kindergarteners are just old enough to be curious, and just young enough where they maybe haven’t gone through the swim lesson programs yet.”
He couldn’t, however, get the program off the ground without help from a local sponsor. He approached Kinetico with an opportunity to support the program and the water treatment company was happy to do so.
“(The program is) a great tie-in with water,” said Pam Langlotz, reached by phone in her marketing office at Kinetico. “It started in national water month and that’s what we do – we treat water.”
The YMCA and Kinetico have had a relationship for several years, through which the business has supported various programs at the facility.
Langlotz also explained their company has a wellness program that ties into the message of the YMCA.
She called the swimming program a good learning experience for young children and a great opportunity for Kinetico.
“We’re very proud to be a part of it,” she said.
Since the initial education program ran in May, her company has received a letter of thanks from Newbury schools that was signed by the members of the Newbury Schools Board of Education.
Conley said a close relationship with the schools in Chardon was also key to the success of the program there, but that if the other four school systems in Geauga County wanted to participate in this kind of program, the YMCA would be there to offer a program.
“We could do every kindergarten in the county if we wanted to,” Conley said. “With community buy-in and support, we have the ability to do almost anything.”
