COLINA DEL SOL - "I don't want to scare people," said Rowdy Gaines, a three-time Olympic gold medalist. "I just want to make them aware that you need to take precautions. Again, water provides so much joy. It's the greatest joy I've ever had."
Gaines is an accomplished athlete turned broadcast commentator. Now, using his name recognition to help encourage families to sign up their kids for swim lessons.
"When you're talking about San Diego and the area around Southern California, water is part of the fabric of your being," said Gaines. "It's who you are. And your lives revolve around water, and so it's tragic when a child drowns. And it's so unnecessary because we found the cure. And the cure literally is to put your children in swim lessons."
The CDC said drowning is the number one cause of death for children ages one to four. In California, about 60 children under the age of five lose their lives to drowning each year.
To help combat this, Rowdy along with organizations Step into Swim and The CEK Foundation gifted $200,000 to First Sport San Diego, a new community initiative that will give the money to local aquatic programs.
Thursday, dozens of kids are front-crawling, bobbing, and just having a good time, not aware that this fun will help set them up to prevent future accidents, like swimmers Remy Sanchez and Kyler Hodges.
"You can have fun in the water," said 8-year-old Remy. "You can jump in, you can swim around, you can play games. I just like it in general."
They're both enjoying time in the water.
"Like you can get way better at it, and learn more things," said 9-year-old swimmer Kyler.
For these kiddos, lessons could save their lives.
"I get a Google alert when a child drowns, and I get three or four every single day," said Gaines. "And it breaks my heart, because in most cases, not all, but in most cases, it was unnecessary. It didn't have to happen."
