With temperatures soaring into the triple-digits, children in Selma have been looking for ways to beat the heat.

Since the closing of the Brown Y, residents that once used the Y’s pool have been scrambling for another way to cool off, but the SPLASH program at the new Y is an effective alternative.

“These are the kids that Brown (YMCA) would have served,” YMCA aquatics coordinator Teal Cabe said. “To most kids in that area, this was their only access to water they had. We wanted to reach out to them. Right now they are being bussed with the help of three churches: Ellwood Christian Church, Gospel Tabernacle and Macedonia.”

The SPLASH program, an acronym for swim, play and learn aquatic safety habits, is a national YMCA program.

Kids are taught about basic rules around the swimming pool, how to act courteous to others who are swimming, proper equipment for those who can’t swim yet and overall safety tips.

“The SPLASH program is big with YMCAs across the country,” Cabe said. “They had the program in place here in Selma, but I found no record of them actually doing it in past years. I think it’s so much more of an education experience for the kids that I wanted to get it started.”

The six-day program not only gives participants a chance to cool off while learning how to swim in the Y’s pool, but also teaches children about life out of the water as well.

“They learn about the YMCA character traits each lesson before we go swimming,” director Yasmin McKinney.

The traits, which include caring, responsibility, honesty and respect, are meant to build the children up and allow them to interact better with each other later in life.

“We want to teach them what is important in life, while they are having fun,” McKinney said.

“With the recent disasters, the need to know how to swim is even more important,” McKinney said. “I’m proud that we can give them this opportunity through our reach out initiative.”

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