Once again, the headlines have managed to drag me out of my little realm of woe. This time, they’re local ones, and I want to start by saying beyond the headline, I do not have any insight or information or even opinions on either of these two events, so let me be clear that this is not in any way, shape or form a commentary on either of them. These are simply the thoughts that have run through my head after reading about two recent drownings in our area.

The word “drowning” is one that will make anyone who has ever been a lifeguard feel sick, as well as give thanks that it didn’t happen on their watch. It doesn’t matter to me whether it was in a bathtub, a pool, a lake, the ocean, a puddle of water, after more than 35 years of being a swim instructor, lifeguard, and lifeguard instructor, I always feel like the system has failed someone somehow.

Of course, I’ve also had an extremely vivid example of how you can do everything right, and things can still go wrong, and accidents will happen, so there is that. But, again, the details of the events themselves are irrelevant to the point that I want to make here. Truthfully, I am not surprised to see drownings making the headlines. I am actually surprised we don’t see more of it.

Over the past several years, our communities have lost several valuable resources when it comes to swim instruction. The Hazleton YMCA/YWCA closed its doors. That’s where I learned to swim, and where I took my kids to learn how to swim. The Y offered a year-round swim instruction program that was reasonably priced. From the time they were 6 months old, my kids went to swim lessons every week, as did most of the other kids enrolled in their programs. This continuity and consistency turned out young children who were excellent swimmers.

The Panther Valley High School Pool, after years of hard work, effort, and a lot of funding from the community, closed its doors as well. Having witnessed firsthand what a community resource that pool was, I was devastated when it was filled in. While I do understand budget constraints and the astronomical costs of running a pool, I can’t put a price on the number of kids who benefited from their swim instruction and competitive programs, or the adults who kept fit during their water exercise programs.

Many of the community pools in the area have had their turns in the barrel: shutting down for all or part of a summer for renovations and improvements. Thankfully, many of them have been able to reopen or plan to reopen in the near future, but still, missing a summer of lessons or even a summer of swimming all day long will have an impact on kids’ swimming abilities.

And then, there is the toll that the pandemic took on many swim programs. A lot of instructor certification programs require instructors to teach so many classes per year, or participate in other continuing education to keep their credentials up to date. While many certifying organizations offered waivers or online training, many instructors just didn’t feel that it was worth the effort or the expense to keep up with their certification, particularly if they were currently out of a job. I know trying to find a class to keep my own lifeguard certification was a challenge and took making a connection through the swim team world to find a class. I ended up getting recertified with the lifeguards who work at Knoebel’s.

I’ve seen the impact of all these different forces as I’ve worked to rebuild our youth swim team program, post-shutdown. On the one hand, I have many people who want to sign their kids up for swim team, because it may be the only option that they have to get some kind of instruction for their kids. On the other hand, we are a competitive swim team and I can’t have 20 kids who won’t let go of the wall and swim in the pool with 20 other kids who are in training.

I’m starting to see the kids who should have been taking lessons when they were 3 and 4 years old now coming into the program as 5- and 6-year-olds who don’t know how to swim at all. In the past, I’d send these kids up to the Hazleton Y program for a season or two, and they’d come back ready to train. Now, I have to send them home with no great options.

Even when community pools offer programs, they usually have limited time and space, and may only be for pool members, or may fill up quickly. Once summer is over, there are not really any other great options for consistent instruction.

Pools and swim programs are often the first victims of budget cuts, because they are so darn expensive. Other than the Olympics every four years, swimming isn’t necessarily a sport that commands the spotlight like football and basketball do. It’s sometimes easy to overlook the real value of a community that can swim well.

Swimming, and other water activities, are usually ones that can be lifelong activities that improve the health and wellness of those that participate in them. 2020 was the longest I’d been out of a pool for over 40 years. It was so unnatural for me that we quickly invested in a small pool for the backyard. I was very lucky to have benefited from years of swim lessons and summers spent at the Bungalow pool. I wish every person in our community had access to those types of programs.

I hope that our communities will take aquatic safety seriously and be willing to invest in the resources that we do have and help develop new ones so we can avoid any more tragedies and everyone can look forward to a safe and enjoyable summer of water fun.

Liz Pinkey is a contributing writer to the Times News. Her column appears weekly in our Saturday feature section.