The National Swimming Pool Foundation (NSPF) has introduced its Step Into Swim™ program, a 10-year campaign, which will see it team up with various organizations in an effort to improve public health and reduce drowning by teaching children, adults and minority populations to swim.
The campaign asks aquatic businesses, associations, and the public sector to sponsor organizations that are already teaching people to swim. To help the public and private sector understand the importance of learning to swim, the NSPF issued a white paper, which explains the benefits of creating more swimmers, and how more people swimming can relieve increasing healthcare costs propelled by physical inactivity, an aging society and troublingly drowning rates. Increasing the number of swimmers also builds demand for public and residential pools, spurring growth for the pool, spa and aquatic industry.
“Pool builders, retailers, service companies, renovators, distributors, manufacturers and industry associations all have a vested interest in the world having more swimmers,” said NSPF’s CEO, Thomas M. Lachocki, PhD. “More swimmers means more healthy people who are less likely to drown and more likely to buy a pool and all the associated products.”
The campaign will officially begin at the Step Into Swim congress on Oct. 10, prior to the 2012 World Aquatic Health™ Conference in Norfolk, Va. For more information on the campaign and the organizations it will support, visit www.stepintoswim.org.
