Swimming with Bluefish
The nonprofit Friends of + Pool and NYCHA have partnered for the second summer in a row to provide the Bluefish Swim Program, a program focused on making sure more kids living in public housing have the opportunity to learn to swim.
Knowing how to swim is important, but many children living in New York City don’t have access to pools or affordable swimming lessons.
The nonprofit Friends of + Pool, which is working to create the City’s first water-filtering floating pool in the East River, partnered with NYCHA to make sure more kids living in public housing have the opportunity to learn to swim. This is the second summer of the Summer Bluefish Swim Program, which provided free lessons to 60 kids ages 8 to 13 living in 13 NYCHA developments. The classes were held at Convent of Sacred Heart Athletic Center on the Upper East Side in July.
All participants in the swim program received new swimsuits, swim caps, goggles, towels, T-shirts, and bags. Ten children from last year’s class were invited back to train to be lifeguards at the future + POOL water-filtering pool in the East River.