JACKSONVILLE, Fla. – Nothing says summer like splashing in a pool or the ocean.
"We live in Florida. There is water everywhere," Ashley Schmaltz said.
She is the mother of three children, all younger than age 10.
"They love the pool," Schmaltz said.
She said all of her children know how to swim.
"We feel it is very important for the kids to be in the water, to feel comfortable in the water and learn the proper technique," Tamara Gibson-Alonso said.
She has two children, ages 5 and 6.
"Seeing them reach milestones, especially when they are in the pool, shows they are growing. They are experiencing a comfortable level of assurance in the water and feel safe," she said.
YMCAs across the First Coast kicked off the annual Safety Around Water campaign with a splash.
"The Y actually has a safe-drown water program, which is a drowning prevention program, and it focuses on teaching kids, if they are around a body of water and they happened to accidentally fall in, how they could get back to safety," said Katie Huff, an associate at the Williams YMCA.
The program is designed for all levels of swimmers from beginners to the more experienced. The YMCA divides the pools into three zones. The red zone is for first-time swimmers because it is shallow. The yellow zone is for intermediate swimmers and the green zone, in the deepest part of the pool, is for those who can swim anywhere in the pool.
The goal is for beginners to move from the red section to the green and become completely self-reliant in the water at any depth.
Within the past couple of weeks, at least four children have drowned in Northeast Florida.