MERIDIAN, Idaho — Around 100 Idaho children took part in the World's Largest Swimming Lesson Thursday morning in the wave pool at Roaring Springs Waterpark.
They joined more than 40,000 others at aquatic facilities around the world for the 12th annual event.
The goal of the event is to spread the message that swimming is a life-saving skill for kids and helps prevent drowning.
The World's Largest Swimming Lesson takes place over the course of 24 hours at hundreds of locations in more than a dozen countries.
In Idaho, around 100 kids or more participated in a half-hour swim lesson at Roaring Springs that focused on basic water safety skills.
The World's Largest Swimming Lesson holds the Guinness World Record for the largest simultaneous swimming lesson conducted at multiple venues. This is the fourth time Roaring Springs has participated in the event.
Learning how to swim is a vital tool to prevent drowning, which is the leading cause of unintended, injury related death for children ages 1-4, and the second leading cause of accidental death for children under 14.
Research shows participation in formal swimming lessons can reduce the risk of drowning by 88% among children aged 1 to 4, yet many kids do not receive formal swimming or water safety training. If a child doesn't learn to swim by the third grade they likely never will.
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