SWIMMING CLASSES FOR ALL AGES

Press, Volume CVIII, Issue 31585, 24 January 1968, Page 11

SWIMMING CLASSES FOR ALL AGES

A COMMENDABLE voluntary effort in the field of teaching children to swim will enter its second decade at the St Albans pool next week. The club’s women’s committee, under the able direction of Mrs C. F. Yorston, has taught hundreds of children to swim in the special sessions held each year. Adults, too, have been catered for, and all age groups have had the opportunity to take their skills a stage further in Saturday morning classes. This year’s classes for children are being held from January 29 to February 3, inclusive, and the adults’ week will start on February 5. Last summer the programme attracted between 350 and 450 children each day, and this year a daily average of 400 is expected again. Children have come from many parts of Christchurch for the lessons, and the heat-

ing of the pool last season gave the venture a great boost. “We are interested in providing children with a good, healthy exercise and equipping them with a knowledge of safety in the water," said Mrs Yorston. “We get a lot of fun out of it, and we feel that our activities constitute a worthwhile community effort.” The understanding touch which Mrs Yorston and her helpers have brought to their method of instruction has proved a great success with adults. Married couples, housewives, grandmothers and family groups have all come to St Albans during the last 10 years. A number of people over 60 have been taught to swim, and some of them continue to enjoy a “daily dip.” The fame of the St Albans classes seems to be spreading. A recent pupil was a small girl from the Kaka Point lighthouse.