IBFTP !!!!!
Safe Swimming Scouts
I was a lifeguard at a Boy Scout Camp for years, and mainly taught Swimming Merit Badge, Lifesaving Merit Badge, Rowing, and Waterskiing. Nothing is more rewarding than seeing a kid who has failed so many times to swim, surface dive, or successfully perform a “rescue”, finally succeed at that task.
Compared to the BSA course, the old Red Cross course was an Easy Stroll for Ladies. We both passed . . . but gosh it was awfully hard work! (and I was a W.S.I. and summer camp counselor and lifeguard for years and years!)
I worked Aquatics staff at Owassippee Scout Reservation back in 1969. I taught Swimming, Lifesaving, Rowing and Canoeing; the latter being my favorite. I earned the Mile Swim every year from ages 12 to 16. I learned to swim when I was 10 at summer camp; my dad was a Scoutmaster and my mother and I were at camp while Dad was with the Troop. An Eagle Scout who had every MB in camp and was looking for something to do made me his personal project.
Last summer I took the Troop to Owassippe Scout Reservation and earned my 6th Mile Swim, at the age of 54. When I returned to the site the other 5 adults in camp were absolutely floored; apparently they were all making bets as to how far I would get before I was hauled gasping out of the lake; none of them thought I’d make it past 1/2 a mile.
Where else do kids learn to swim these days? Or paddle a canoe, or row a boat? Where will they learn to save their own life, or someone else, if they get in trouble in the water?