The Tribune

By BRENT STUBBS

Senior Sports Reporter

bstubbs@tribunemedia.net

FOR the past 15 years, the husband and wife team of Andy and Nancy Knowles have been stress-ing the importance of “learning to swim” through their Let’s Swim Bahamas programme.

Yesterday at the Univer-sity of the Bahamas pool, the Knowles and their organisation got to give a first-hand experience to a number of dignitaries as they got set to complete the programme that coincides with the academic school year.

The programme is designed for primary school students in their bid to get the younger children learn-ing how to swim so as to provide them with the nec-essary skills to take through the rest of their lives.

“We build a foundation with the kids on the bus as we read a scripture, say a memory voice and we sing some songs,” Andy Knowles aaid.

“When they get to the pool, we teach them the basic fundamentals of learning how to swim. “We are the most beautiful country in the world with the most beautiful water,” Knowles said. “We took the kids snorkelling last week and many of them have never been on a boat.

“Many of them have never seen marine life with turtles and groupers all swimming around. So we’re teaching them how to swim, which is a life-saving skill, they will learn to appreciate the beauty of the Bahamas and we have it all struc-tured with Nancy.”

On their way back to school, Knowles said they instil the importance of water safety.

At the end of the pro-gramme, Knowles said each participant will get a certificate, indicating that they would have completed the course offered by Let’s Swim Bahamas.

The programme will take a break until September when it will resume.

Hopefully then, Knowles said they will be able to reach the other primary schools that they haven’t done as yet with the goal of trying to incorporate all primary schools in New Providence.

Among the dignitaries on hand was Minister of National Security Wayne Munroe who said he was pleased to see how actively involved the Royal Bahamas Defence Force is in the programme.

“This is a part of the Defence Force mission that is undertaken by them and embraced by them,” he said. “So on the approach, I knew the commodore and his team would be receptive to it.

“I’m impressed with what I heard about the children coming here on the bus and singing the songs of God. Without God, you can’t do anything successfully and so it’s quite impressive to see the discipline in the children.”

Munroe not only com-mended the divers from the RBDF, but the Knowles for their initiative in get-ting the programme started without any help from the government. But because of the impact that they are making, he said the govern-ment is definitely going to continue to throw theirsup-port behind it.

Commodore Dr Ray-mond King said the RBDF is excited about partnering with the Knowles to bring more awareness to the Bahamas in their Learn to Swim programme.

This programme, accord-ing to King, is just one of the three pillows that the RBDF has embarked on making their contribution to the community and they are delighted to provide the complement of divers to assist in the training regi-men of the participants.
“It’s a wonderful oppor-tunity and it’s a mutually beneficial opportunity,” King said. “Our divers are able to learn what it is to be a coach. We are surrounded by water, so everybody should learn how to swim, especially from our primary school level.”

With a complement of 30 swimmers assigned to the programme, chief petty officer Thomas Williams said the RBDF officers are not only learning to per-fect their diving skills, but they are learning to become professional swimmers and instructors. “My job is to make sure that it’s carried out and make sure that my men get better and they can come back and better help the Defence Force out,” Williams stated.

Naria Holbert, princi-pal at Eva Hilton Primary School, joined her second grade students as they completed their eighth lessons with Let’s Swim Bahamas and are on their way to earning the Swim America award of achieve-ment. “We’re very grateful for the partnership with this community organisation as it encourages water safety,” Holbert said. “My school has been a part of this ini-tiative since 2018 and to date, more than 50 percent of our students have been immersed in water safety through the Let’s Swim Bahamas organisation.

“So this morning, I’m very grateful to the Minis-try of Education for taking on this partnership and for allowing, not just the stu-dents of Eva Hilton, but through the length and breadth of New Providence to participate in this impor-tant programme.”

Holbert said some of their students were afraid of the water, but now they are “blowing bubbles, learning to kick” and some have completed up to the 10th stage of the Let’s Swim Bahamas programme.

She pointed out that at least 1-4 of their students have successfully com-pleted that phase of the programme and they are grateful to the partnership presented by Let’s Swim Bahamas, which also pro-vides scriptures and songs to sing as they make their way to and from school to UB. “Swim Bahamas has been a real blessing to us and I want to thank the parents for their strong sup-port of the programme,” Holbert pointed out.

“It’s through their strong support and their trust in Let’s Swim Bahamas that we have been able to reach such a large number of chil-dren participating in the programme.”