YMCA

The recent findings by USA swimming showing that drowning is the second leading cause of death among youth 14 and under and that Florida has the highest incidence of drowning of children between the ages of 1-4 has startled me. It seems that after every weekend on the First Coast there has been another unnecessary drowning or near drowning. These incidences can be and should be avoided. I am glad the Clay County YMCAs are reacting to these statistics and events by dubbing July their Aquatics Safety Month.

I have always been a strong swimmer and aquatics safety always seemed a concept I naturally comprehended because of my background. However, it turned out that I was naive when I was actually faced with an incident in my own backyard. I was taking a leisurely swim alone after work. I pushed myself off the side of the wall in the deep end and instantly had a cramp in my calf. The cramp was so bad that I felt paralyzed. I began floundering in the water and luckily a raft was floating nearby that I could grab. The cramp went away after about thirty minutes and I limped for the next nine days, but the memory is still fresh in my mind.

First, I must say that it was nice to open up the paper this morning and find that MyClaySun had used one of my photographs for the front cover. However, it was very disappointing that an erroneous assumption was made regarding where the picture was taken. I noted in the days preceding the Healthy Kids Day events that the Dye-Clay Family YMCA was consistently omitted from the "planner" on page 2. Each listing reported the Healthy Kids Day event taking place at the Barco-Newton YMCA, even though both facilities were listed on the MCS calendar for that day. I do not know if the Barco-Newton YMCA also had a large blow-up alligator for the children, but I can assure you that the picture on page 1 was not of their reptile.