Water safety stressed to a young Oconee population

The marriage between the Foothills YMCA and Oconee’s public schools pays important dividends for students, county trustees were told last night.  Dr. Michael Thorsland, district superintendent, says the bus loads of students who get to use the Y’s large indoor swimming pool are learning a lot about water safety.  It isn’t simply teaching non-swimmers how to swim.  It’s also, he says, instructing members of Oconee’s youngest population what to do to stay safe if–skilled in the art of swimming or not–they find themselves in some kind of water mishap.  For example, how to free oneself from an overturned canoe. The public school district became a large financial contributor to the “Y” project in the early days of the project, realizing that Oconee is a county surrounded practically on all sides by water.