ST. JOHNS COUNTY, Fla. – A St. Johns County swim school is making sure veterans in our area are learning to swim.
These lessons are part of Linda Bolger’s mission to make sure everyone learns to swim, and she’s teaming up with The Wounded Warrior Project.
Bolger’s mission of teaching water safety spans several decades.
She is the founder of the FAST Swim Program, which stands for Floatation Aided Swim Training, and makes it her mission to teach veterans and the community the life-saving skill of swimming.
“They are people who put a lot of time and effort in for our country, but it’s also something that I’m passionate about. I want many, many people to learn how to swim properly,” said Bolger.
That includes veterans like Randy and Jacqueline Price.
“For me, fear played a large role in why I didn’t know how to swim,” Jacqueline said. “I was born in Jamaica and grew up in Fort Lauderdale by the beaches and spent 27 years in the Navy and wasn’t fluent in swimming so this is a great opportunity for me.”
“We were going to these Caribbean areas, and I would stay away from the water, and it was because of the fear of the water,” Randy said. “I just basically opened myself up and said, ‘This time, I’m going to do it.’”
Hosnick Martinez served in the Marine Corps and is learning to swim not only for himself but for his children.
“I moved from New Jersey to Florida, and I have three kids. I thought it was important for them to learn how to swim so I felt like I need to learn how as well,” Martinez said.
Bolger’s focus during these lessons is making sure people learn how to breathe properly.
“90% of the people who can’t swim properly is because they’ve never known how to breathe properly,” she said. “Hold your nose, blow your bubbles, take a breath and as simple as that you do doggie paddle. And then the doggie paddle leads to the freestyle.”
Through her program, everyone starts lessons wearing a life jacket.
“It’s a very simple technique, but with a life jacket on we can have adults, children learn how to swim properly easily,” Bolger said. “They get their endurance built quickly, their breathing is built quickly. They don’t worry about drowning.”
David Mynett with the Wounded Warrior Project said the number of veterans in the organization who didn’t know how to swim was surprising.
“Time and time again, warriors in their younger lives got taught how to swim the wrong way and that fear stays with them for years and years and years,” Mynett said. “We’re trying to eliminate that fear by wearing that buoyancy aid and then confidence. It’s just empowering to see the smiles on their faces.”
Through Bolger’s program, more than 20 Wounded Warriors now know how to swim -- many of them gaining confidence they never had before.
“Being out here in the water has shown me what I can and cannot do, but also it’s giving me the confidence to be able to show my kids that they can do it, too,” Martinez said.
The FAST Swim program teaches people of all ages and skill levels.
For more information on how to take lessons, click here.