Make A Splash
The Spokane Parks Foundation's Make-A-Splash in a Kid's Life program provides swimming opportunities to kids through free open swim sessions,reduced cost swim lessons, free swimsuits, and free water safety swim clinics throughout Spokane County.
Through generous donations from the community, the Make-A-Splash in a Kid's Life program has been able to provide access to area pools for thousands of children.
But there are still more kids in need of assistance. River City Pageant is pleased to help Spokane Parks Foundation both financially and with donations of swimsuits through our "Swimsuit Competition" program.
*The goal of swim lessons is to make children SAFER in, on, and around water. We have over 70 bodies of water in the Spokane region.
*79% of children in households with incomes less than $50,000 have little-to-no swimming ability.
*10 people drown each day in the United States.
*Formal swimming lessons reduces the likelihood of childhood drowning by 88%.
According to the CDC:
*Drowning is responsible for more deaths among children aged 1–4 years than any other cause except congenital anomalies.
*For persons aged ≤29 years, drowning is one of the top three causes of unintentional injury death (2). Previous research has identified racial/ethnic disparities in drowning rates.
*The CDC analyzed 12 years of combined mortality data from 1999–2010 for those aged ≤29 years:
Among non-Hispanics, the overall drowning rate for American Indians/Alaska Natives was twice the rate for whites, and the rate for blacks was 1.4 times the rate for whites.
*Disparities were greatest in swimming pools, with swimming pool drowning rates among blacks aged 5–19 years 5.5 times higher than those among whites in the same age group. This disparity was greatest at ages 11–12 years; at these ages, blacks drown in swimming pools at 10 times the rate of whites.
*Drowning prevention strategies include using barriers (e.g., fencing) and life jackets, actively supervising or life guarding, teaching basic swimming skills and performing bystander cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR).
*The practicality and effectiveness of these strategies varies by setting; however, basic swimming skills can be beneficial across all settings.
Contestants of River City Pageant are encouraged to enter our "Swimsuit Competition" and collect swimsuits for "Make A Splash" to turn in at pageant check-in as well as raise money for park improvement projects funded by Spokane Parks Foundation.
If you are interested in making a financial contribution to our fundraiser for Spokane Parks Foundation, please visit our Donation Page.