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Recently, John Cruzat headed to Harlem Week to promote the “Make A Splash” (MAS), our national water safety initiative. Here are some of his thoughts and notes from his historic work in Harlem. Here are a few photos from the event.
Harlem Week
I wanted to give you a quick update on the MAS appearance in Harlem. Before I arrived I talked to Winston the Harlem week director about the importance of pushing the appearance to the media. The local NBC affiliate (Channel 4) interviewed me regarding the MAS program and the Olympics. The interview was live at 6:30 a.m. Today we went through most of the giveaways. After talking to a number of parents throughout the day the following topics came up in many of the conversations I had.
- Fear. The fear of swimming has been past down to kids. Most of the parents that I talked to don’t know how to swim. I had a very long conversation with a gentleman who will not let his son go anywhere near a pool. When I pointed out the drowning statistics his attitude changed from my kids don’t need to know how to swim to where can I sign them up.
- Cullen Jones. Cullen’s success in the games was a wonderful point of reference. Families understood the impact of an elite athlete like Cullen on the children who will begin and embrace our sport.
- Access. The problem isn’t necessarily access but transportation. This backs up the diversity research. One parent said that she wants her daughter to take lessons but she (the parent) has to work most of the day and couldn’t bring her to the pool.
- Age. Everyone (the parents) assumed that after a certain age a person is too old to learn how to swim. Most of the elderly people I talked to said that it is a sport for the young.
- Visibility of the YMCA. Most of the parents that came by the booth bring their kids to the YMCA for lessons.
- Lack of USA Swimming visibility in ethnic neighborhoods. Not many people knew about USA Swimming. When I mentioned Phelps quest for 8 gold medals (great way to start a conversation) they suddenly brightened up and said that they knew he was going for the record but they didn’t understand that USA Swimming is the national governing body for swimming. I strongly believe that continued appearances at festivals like Harlem Week will increase the visibility of Make a Splash among at risk groups.
Thanks for the update John. We will look forward to hearing more from you in your upcoming travels.
