Y on the Fly's lessons on location: 'It's such a cool thing to watch'
Jul. 20—Close
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Flynn Junson, 6, gets congratulations from Kira Barker, 16, for putting her face in the water as YMCA Heat swimmers and friends help younger Y on the Fly campers learn the ropes Wednesday at Town Center Apartments in Champaign. The story behind the innovative outreach initiative focused on underserved kids — A-8 and our photo gallery at news-gazette.com.
* Robin Scholz/The News-Gazette
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Champaign County Heat swimmers and friends, based out of the Stephens Family YMCA, Champaign, help younger Y on the Fly campers learn the ropes Tuesday at Town Center Apartments in Champaign. Coach Will Barker, right, oversees the lesson.
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Instructor Kennedy Borden, 15, right, helps Raz'zarriah Boatright-Williams,10, float on her back as YMCA Heat swimmers and friends help younger Y on the Fly campers learn the ropes at Town Centre Apartments in Champaign on Tuesday, July 18, 2023.
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Leayanna Sibley,8, hangs on to Coach Will BArker's hand as she dares to jump in the pool to Kira Barker and Ysra Bajis,14, as YMCA Heat swimmers and friends help younger Y on the Fly campers learn the ropes at Town Centre Apartments in Champaign on Tuesday, July 18, 2023.
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Raz'zarriah Boatright-Williams,10, jumps into the deeper end of the pool to Marin McAndrew as her sister Rah'nylah Boatright-Williams, 7, waits her turn as YMCA Heat swimmers and friends help younger Y on the Fly campers learn the ropes at Town Centre Apartments in Champaign on Tuesday, July 18, 2023.
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Marin McAndrew helps Flynn Junson, 9, get used to the water Tuesday as Champaign County Heat swimmers and friends teach younger Y on the Fly campers to swim at Town Center Apartments in Champaign.
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Flings Junson, 12, uses a paddle board as YMCA Heat swimmers and friends help younger Y on the Fly campers learn the ropes at Town Center Apartments in Champaign on Tuesday, July 18, 2023.
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LEFT: Initially anxious campers enter the pool one by one as instructors lend a hand. Leayanna Sibley, 8, hangs on to Coach Will Barker's hand as she dares to jump in the pool as volunteer instructors Kira Barker and Ysra Bajis, 14, look on.
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PHOTO GALLERY: Lessons on location
Members of a YMCA swimming team took their act on the road to work with underserved kids at a pool at a Champaign apartment complex.
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Flynn Junson, 6, gets congratulations from Kira Barker, 16, for putting her face in the water as YMCA Heat swimmers and friends help younger Y on the Fly campers learn the ropes Wednesday at Town Center Apartments in Champaign. The story behind the innovative outreach initiative focused on underserved kids — A-8 and our photo gallery at news-gazette.com.
* Robin Scholz/The News-Gazette
Champaign County Heat swimmers and friends, based out of the Stephens Family YMCA, Champaign, help younger Y on the Fly campers learn the ropes Tuesday at Town Center Apartments in Champaign. Coach Will Barker, right, oversees the lesson.
* Robin Scholz/The News-Gazette
Buy Now
Instructor Kennedy Borden, 15, right, helps Raz'zarriah Boatright-Williams,10, float on her back as YMCA Heat swimmers and friends help younger Y on the Fly campers learn the ropes at Town Centre Apartments in Champaign on Tuesday, July 18, 2023.
* Robin Scholz/The News-Gazette
Leayanna Sibley,8, hangs on to Coach Will BArker's hand as she dares to jump in the pool to Kira Barker and Ysra Bajis,14, as YMCA Heat swimmers and friends help younger Y on the Fly campers learn the ropes at Town Centre Apartments in Champaign on Tuesday, July 18, 2023.
* Robin Scholz/The News-Gazette
Raz'zarriah Boatright-Williams,10, jumps into the deeper end of the pool to Marin McAndrew as her sister Rah'nylah Boatright-Williams, 7, waits her turn as YMCA Heat swimmers and friends help younger Y on the Fly campers learn the ropes at Town Centre Apartments in Champaign on Tuesday, July 18, 2023.
* Robin Scholz/The News-Gazette
Marin McAndrew helps Flynn Junson, 9, get used to the water Tuesday as Champaign County Heat swimmers and friends teach younger Y on the Fly campers to swim at Town Center Apartments in Champaign.
*
Robin Scholz photos/
The News-Gazette
Buy Now
Flings Junson, 12, uses a paddle board as YMCA Heat swimmers and friends help younger Y on the Fly campers learn the ropes at Town Center Apartments in Champaign on Tuesday, July 18, 2023.
* Robin Scholz/The News-Gazette
LEFT: Initially anxious campers enter the pool one by one as instructors lend a hand. RIGHT: Leayanna Sibley, 8, hangs on to Coach Will Barker's hand as she dares to jump in the pool as volunteer instructors Kira Barker and Ysra Bajis, 14, look on.
* Robin Scholz/The News-Gazette
CHAMPAIGN — Rah'Nylah and Rah'Zarriah Boatright-Williams didn't know anything about how to swim when the summer began.
Water didn't seem so scary for the sisters on Tuesday as they splashed around with other Y on the Fly campers at Town Center Apartments in Champaign.
"I've gotten really good," 7-year-old Rah'Nylah said as she leaned against the edge of the pool toward the end of the lesson. She had been practicing jumps along with Rah'Zarriah, 10.
The free lessons allow campers to progress via exercises such as blowing bubbles underwater, floating, kicking, back floats and water safety.
Many of those registered for lessons are learning the basics in their home pool; the no-cost camp meets daily at the Town Center complex and provides activities for underserved youth in North Champaign.
The Champaign County Heat swim team, based out of the Stephens Family YMCA, provides instruction and donated caps and goggles toward the effort, with further contributions from InsureChampaign and Iroquois Federal Bank.
"It's such a cool thing to watch," Champaign Heat director and coach Will Barker said.
"There's such a stigma with this group about water safety and (that's) ingrained because they want their kids to be safe. We want them to be safe in the sense that if they're around water, you'd want to be able to swim."
Four volunteer instructors — Kennedy Borden, Yara Bajis, Kira Barker and Marin McAndrew — were on hand to lead the group of seven campers through the lesson as the kids showcased their new skills with increasing enthusiasm.
"Swimming is a really important skill," McAndrew said. "I feel really good just, like, teaching these kids how to do something that I've loved my entire life."
Not every kid in the Y on the Fly camp hits the water when lessons are offered on Tuesday and Thursday afternoons; the program accepts 15 kids and isn't completely full this summer.
Campers signed up for the swimming program partake in regular camp activities when they aren't in the water.
The camp has a new theme each week; this week's theme is Minute to Win It, while prior themes included Olympic games and animals.
"It's an absolutely free program for these communities," Y on the Fly supervisor Lonyea Fane said. "And we have also reached out, like across the street, that's a completely different community, but they're also welcome to come over."
Knowing how to swim could be life-saving in certain situations.
"If they have access to this pool and they don't know how to swim, that could be dangerous," Barker said. "So we thought, what a perfect opportunity to teach them to swim in a pool that's right next to their house, with an adult, and they can practice and they can learn how to swim."
The Boatright-Williams sisters weren't alone in not knowing how to swim when the summer began.
Many of their fellow campers were in the same boat. But the group had plenty of confidence during Tuesday's swim.
"The kids are all a great group to work with," Borden said. "They're all very excited to learn about swimming and getting in the water. Like they've made a lot of improvement, I think, too."
Will Barker is hoping to see the program grow in the years ahead.
Stephens Family YMCA's other Y on the Fly camp in Rantoul also offers swim lessons, although those campers bus to the Hap Parker Family Aquatic Center because that apartment lacks a pool.
"Ideally, if it got bigger, we just add another session, we do a session of 10 kids and another session of 10 kids or whatever it might be," Barker said.
"And if the more kids that wanted to do it, we would make sure it happened, you know, (if we need to add) a pool, you have to add instructors, we have to add full time or poll time or space or different groups."
Three of the instructors — Borden, Barker and McAndrew — got connected with the program through the YMCA's Heat swim team. Bajis is a friend of the trio.
"I really like this program and getting to work with these kids," Bajis said. "I think it's great."
It's rewarding work for them and the swimmers alike.
"You really can learn how to swim when you get older," Rah'Nylah said. "So like you can start as a little kid and work your way up."
