The Friends of the Virgin Islands National Park (FVINP) has kicked off this summer with its Friends Learn To Swim program by providing weekly lessons to some 100 kids attending summer camps run by the Department of Sports, Parks and Recreation, the Boys and Girls Club, and St. John Folly.
In addition, there will be an open house every Saturday morning at Cinnamon Bay Beach from 10 a.m. to noon for anyone interested in swim lessons and meeting the instructors. A shuttle will leave the bandstand in Powell Park at 9:30 a.m. for the open house.
The Friends of the Virgin Islands National Park is very focused on building up the skills of Virgin Islands youth, and, to that end, it is recruiting life guards and instructors. These are part time positions and include paid training and certification.
The Friends hopes to gather enough momentum during the summer with the aim of the program becoming a year-round program.  All of the lessons are free and available to everyone in the community. They are funded by the Beach to Beach Power Swim and other fundraising sources.
More information on Learn to Swim can be found on the organization’s website at https://friendsvinp.org/learn-to-swim/ (The photos were taken recently. The kids are all from the Boys and Girls Club.)
