Bowie State Hosts World's Largest Swim Lesson For First Time

BOWIE, MD — As temperatures rose on a hot summer day, first-time swimmers across the world spent the day cooling off in the pool for the 12th annual World’s Largest Swimming Lesson

Particularly in Bowie, children, parents, friends and family joined the worldwide event at Bowie State University Thursday to bring awareness to childhood drowning and the importance of learning to swim.

Mark Wascavage, aquatics coordinator at Bowie State University, was not only excited to host the World’s Largest Swimming Lesson for the first time, but he was excited to see so many people learning to swim.

Wascavage said, “I think the biggest takeaway from today is that people have an even better understanding of how important swim lessons are and how important it is to learn to swim.”

The six hourly sessions were led by Bowie State’s water safety instructors as swimmers learned how to swim, paddle, kick, float and blow bubbles underwater.

Sixteen swimmers were permitted in the pool each hour, which gave swimmers more space to develop their new skills. Mary Wascavage, wife of Mark Wascavage, explained the aquatics staff decided to limit the number of people in the pool to give swimmers the best learning experience possible.

“I’ve been to places where they packed the place and the children can’t move. We thought this would be best to minimize so everyone could have a better one-on-one experience. This way everybody has an instructor or an aide available when they need it,” she said.

Swimmers of all ages participated in Thursday’s event, ranging from toddlers to senior citizens. Tiffany Bullock signed her daughter, Kayla, up for swimming lessons because she believed it was time for her daughter to learn to swim with the summer pool season approaching.

“I thought it was important because she is going on 13 and she hasn’t learned how to swim yet.” Bullock said, "When this opportunity became available, I was quick to jump on it. I think it’s very important for her to learn how to swim. Summertime is here and I’m sure she would like to spend some time in the pool.”

Although the swimming lessons were hosted in support of the World’s Largest Swimming Lessons, the event kicked off Bowie State University’s new swimming lessons program.

“Our staff decided that the one-day event wasn’t enough for people to learn to swim, so we are offering free swim lessons,” Wascavage said, “People who come tonight will get first choice for swim lessons next week. But, we’re offering a full week of swim lessons next week and then if people want additional swim lessons, we’re offering those also.”

People interested in learning more about Bowie State University’s upcoming swimming lessons can contact Mark Wascavage at (301) 860-4739 or via e-mail at mwascavage@bowiestate.edu.