Laurie Lawrence visits Mandurah to hammer home swim safety message

Mr Lawrence stopped at Kirby Swim in Erskine, opened by former Olympic swimmer Bill Kirby.

“Bill has opened up a few of these pools now, and he’s done a great thing by basically constructing the best possible kinds of pools for teaching swimming,” Mr Lawrence said.

“It has various different levels, it has different-sized lanes for different activities, it has accessibility  rails all around it. But most importantly it allows for supervision and control, which is really two of the keys to teaching kids how to swim.

“But most of all there’s a sense of community here. the staff, the parents, the kids – everyone gets along, and from what I’ve seen that’s been a real driving force of getting the message of swim safety and education to a wider audience.”

Mr Lawrence launched the Kids Alive Drowning Prevention Campaign in 1988, hoping to kerb the accidental deaths of children caused by drowning.

Since then, he’s seen Learn to Swim become one of the most supported public safety campaigns nation-wide.

“When I started, we had 63 kids under the age of five drowning every summer,” he said.

“We had about four or five swim schools taking part in Queensland. We’ve now got more than 400 swim schools and schools doing the program now, altogether.”

Despite the ongoing work from Mr Lawrence and the various swim safety organisations throughout the state, accidental drowning remains one of the biggest killers of children, especially in summer months.

“Last year, Royal Life Saving statistics showed 21 children drowned. So by no means has it been a perfect science,” he said.

“We can’t be popping the popcorn yet, because we’re not there yet. Being able to reach zero deaths is our goal, and that would be an outstanding goal to achieve.”

In order to reach that goal, Mr Lawrence has expanded the Learn to Swim program – which is well known nationwide due to its iconic TV advertising spots – to as many schools as he can.

“At this point, we have more than 400 schools and swim schools taking part in the program. It’s obviously a big step up from where we started,” he said.

But every year we get more and more swim schools involved, because there’s hundreds of them, they're a part of most Australian communities. Reaching out to them and getting them to be a part of this unified message has been one of the greatest successes in what we’re doing, so that’s our priority.”

At the forefront of this year’s Learn To Swim Week program is the free swim classes being offered by participating swim schools, as well as a new series of books written by Mr Lawrence and distributed with aid from the Federal Government.

“There’s a book for the home, the beach, school and farm – the four places where children drown,” he said.

“So with that, we’re tackling the issue directly by educating kids about these places where there is water, and there is the potential for drowning.

"There’s two keys here: education and confidence. Getting kids swimming as early as possible.”

Mr Lawrence said there was some misinformation which stated children under the age of five can’t swim, but getting them used to water as early as possible was a powerful tool in swim safety.

“Once kids learn how to float, they begin learning how to swim, even just to get form A to B,” he said.

“They’ll want to learn, and they’ll become more comfortable being in the water, which is so important, because so many drownings are caused by a lack of skill or losing composure.”

Mr Lawrence said most swim schools around the country should offer free classes during Learnt to Swim week.

“Even if they don’t, just ask. We want as many schools and families involved as possible, so just get the word out there.”

For more information on Learn to Swim Week and for a list of participating swim schools, go to kidsalive.com.au.