SHARKS
Safe Healthy Aquatic Recreation for Kids
YMCA-YWCA SHARKs swim program is an innovative an exciting swim program provided to grade 3 students in the city of Guelph with hopes of inclusing all grade 3's and 5's in 2011. SHARKs has grown from humble beginnings of 6 schools and 250 students in 2004 to over 1600 students and all grade 3 schools in Guelph participating.
Grade 3 SHARKs reaches over 1400 students in Guelph. Grade 3 SHARKs teaches the Life Saving Society's Swim to Survive curriculum of surviving a sudden and unexpected aquatic emergency. With SHARKs training the students of Guelph learn how to 1- recover from a fall into the water, 2-tread water until rescuers arrive and 3- swim to safety. With the help of the Lifesaving Society the Guelph YMCA-YWCA and City of Guelph have teamed together to bring this program to 96% of grade 3 students in Guelph FREE OF COST.
The goal of the YMCA-YWCA of Guelph and the City of Guelph is to have 100 percent of students graduating from grade 8 in 2019 be able to acheive the Swim To Survive Standard. SHARKs is an important and vital step to reaching this goal, and the YMCA-YWCA of Guelph looks forward to ensuring the aquatic safety of the students of Guelph both now and in the future.