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On a recent day in St. Paul, dozens of black, Hispanic and Asian-American kids sat splashing around at the edge of a pool.


 
 
The 5- to 9-year-olds were learning some basic rules: to stay away from fenced or locked pools, for example, and to swim in the company of an adult.

 
 
Angel Moreno Rodriguez, 9, said there was a lot he didn't know about swimming.


  
 
 
He recited some of what he'd learned: "If you see a broken drain, don't go close to it — tell an adult. Don't play-fight. Don't fake that you're drowning. Don't do something dangerous in the water."


 
 
The free swim camp is a partnership between The ZAC Foundation, a national nonprofit; the local YMCA; and the Boys and Girls Club. The partnership's goal is to prevent drownings, especially among minority populations.
 

 
In Minnesota and across the country, studies show that African-American kids and other children of color are more likely to drown than white children. Just this month, 14-year-old 

 of St. Paul drowned in the St. Croix River and 21-year-old Devin McCauley of Woodbury drowned in a pond.

African-Americans less likely to swim, more likely to drown

 
After learning how to float on her front and on her back, 8-year-old Makayla Anderson said it been fun, but "at the same time I was nervous, because I was afraid that she was going to let me go."
 

 
But instructor Lindsay Mondick didn't let her go. The director of aquatics for the YMCA Twin Cities has been teaching the new swimmers how to enjoy water in pools and swimming holes around town.
 

 
"Minnesota is the land of more than 10,000 lakes, and one of the things that the Y is committed to doing is making sure we give access to kids who otherwise wouldn't be able to afford swimming lessons," she said. Those include "children of color, new immigrant populations, as well as kids from low-income families."

 
 
Mondick said she's been amazed to see kids who were afraid of the water at the start of camp try to swim on their own. Some think they know how to swim, and others are just afraid to admit they can't, she said.
 
 


 
At the Boys and Girls Clubs of the Twin Cities, where some of the swimming instruction took place, branch director Diana Adamson said she'd had some heart-to-heart talks with parents and their nervous children.
 

 
"Some of them are so ready to embrace it all," she said, while "others are so nervous and terrified they didn't even want to be a part of the class."
 

 
 
Mondick said swim lessons aren't just for kids. Many adults from minority groups don't know how to swim either.

 
 
"Swimming, unfortunately, is one of those things that I think a lot of adults are either scared of, or are possibly ashamed of — that they don't know how to swim, and they are afraid to ask for help," she said.

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In Minnesota and around the country, children from minority populations are more likely than white kids to drown.

Swim classes aim to help kids of color stay safe

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