MURFREESBORO, Tenn. – A Middle Tennessee man has taken matters into his own hands by starting a new program to give free swimming lessons to kids.
As summer approaches, more and more kids will be spending time outdoors, and sadly that also means an increase in drowning deaths each year.
Swimming lessons are now being offered to children of emergency responders in Rutherford County, through the Howard's Hope charity. The man in charge of that charity came up with the idea for the free lessons after hearing about all the drownings across the state last year.
Steve Reeves hopes to soon expand his program to low-income families, the most at-risk group for drownings in the summer.
“We just hate seeing those stories, and hopefully we'll get to a point where we don't see those stories, at least in this county, again,” Reeves said.
The Howard's Hope charity is run solely with community donations. It was started earlier this year focusing on disadvantaged kids.
