JACKSONVILLE, Fla. – A woman who founded a program in Jacksonville to teach children and adults how to swim for free said a new state law will prevent more children from drowning.
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Joyce Delifus co-founded the Shawn D. Delifus Foundation, which was created to honor her son who taught swimming.
She had a binder of the names of around 300 children who applied for her free swimming program.
“We simply save lives of babies, small children, teenagers, adults and senior citizens,” Delifus said.
Her foundation has helped over 1,600 people learn how to swim since starting in 2016.
It’s something she said she’s passionate about and gets her excited.
That excitement grew this week when Governor Ron DeSantis signed a bill that creates a voucher program to give free swimming lessons to children in Florida.
The state’s Department of Health established a network of swimming lesson providers to participate in the program.
It covers the costs of families who have one or more children four years of age or younger, with an income of no more than 200% of the federal poverty level.
That would be $62,400 for a family of four.
This is all to help prevent child drownings in the state. According to the Department of Children and Families, 99 children died from drownings in the state in 2023.
In 2024, 26 children have died from drowning.
Delifus said the voucher program couldn’t have come at a better time.
“I’m happy for anyone to take an interest in children. I’m happy for anyone to prevent a mother from walking behind their child’s casket,” Delifus said.
Something she said should never have to happen.
“If they can get that voucher, go get it. It’s just so important so that if your four year old is on the deck playing around and someone pushes them in, they need to know how to turn around and get out of the pool and save their life,” Delifus said.
The program will be given $500,000 to operate for the first year as stated in the bill and it will take effect on July 1.