Red Cross Provides Free Swimming Lessons To Tulsa Area Kids

NewsOn6.com

TULSA, Oklahoma -- A great way to cope with the brutal summer heat is to go for a swim.

The Tulsa Chapter of the American Red Cross provided free swimming lessons to almost 200 kids, in their annual "Scholarship Learn-to Swim Program" Monday.

Since 2000, the Tulsa Chapter has worked with kids in lower-income areas, teaching the importance of knowing how to swim as well as swimming safety.

"Often times children don't know to be afraid around the water, so they approach it with great confidence, and they don't know the potential dangers," Donita Quesnel, with the Tulsa Area Red Cross, said.

The event is in light of a study that found that nearly 70 percent of African American children do not know how to swim, nearly twice the number of white children.

According to Safe Kids USA, more than 800 children under the age of 14 die each year from accidental drowning.