Free swim program launches in Lealman

Three area nonprofits are coming together to start a new program offering free swimming lessons to children and teens in an unincorported part of Pinellas County. 

The Lealman Swim Program aims to equip kids with essential swimming skills and provide workforce training opportunities to young adults looking to earn their lifeguard certification. Starting July 15, the Lealman Swim Program will offer free swim lessons every Monday and Wednesday from 2:30 to 3:30 p.m. at the Jim and Heather Gills YMCA in St. Petersburg. These classes are open to children and teens aged 6 to 16, regardless of their swimming experience.

For years, Florida has led the nation in child drowning deaths, and 2023 was no exception. Florida Department of Children and Families data shows 99 kids drowned last year. The importance of swim safety in preventing drowning accidents is well documented, yet children in the Lealman area of Pinellas County have no direct access to a community pool.

Lealman community leaders have long expressed their desire to build a pool in Lealman, but have faced funding and logistical challenges. In an effort to solve this issue, nonprofit leaders at the St. Petersburg Foundation, Community Foundation Tampa Bay and the YMCA of Greater St. Petersburg put their heads together to come up with a solution.

“For the last couple of years, we’ve had discussions about how we can make an even greater impact on kids and families, and one of the areas that has come up has been the interest of the Lealman people in getting a pool,” said Tim Staley, Chief Operating Officer of the YMCA of Greater St. Petersburg. “In lieu of a pool, in the interim, we said, ‘We need to make sure that the kids have the ability to get affordable and accessible swim lessons.’ So it just kind of morphed from there.”

The Jim and Heather Gills YMCA campus in St. Petersburg. Google Maps.

The St. Petersburg Foundation, which operates the Lealman Exchange community center in partnership with Pinellas County and is the philanthropic arm of the St. Petersburg Group, which owns the St. Pete Catalyst, will bus participants from the Lealman Exchange to the Gills YMCA and back. The lessons are offered for free through the nonprofit partnership and grant funding from the Fred Fisher Every Kid A Swimmer Fund at Community Foundation Tampa Bay.

Fred Fisher, a Tampa Bay philanthropist and business leader, became passionate about swim safety after he lost his 4-year-old son Mark in a drowning accident in 1962. Fisher was well-known for his fundraising efforts, including securing $15 million to build the Long Center in Clearwater, which is now a city-run sports and recreation center with an Olympic-size pool. Upon his death in 2023, Fisher’s family set up his eponymous memorial fund through Community Foundation Tampa Bay, continuing his legacy of supporting swim safety.

“This has been a personal passion of Fred’s because he and his family uniquely understand the devastation of drowning,” said Katie Shultz, Vice President of Communications for Community Foundation Tampa Bay. “Swim accidents are something that covers all socioeconomic levels, all races, all ethnicities, all backgrounds and all ages, and it’s 100% preventable. Fred and his family were very aware of that, and want to prevent other families from going through what they went through.”

The Fred Fisher Every Kid A Swimmer Fund is specifically designed to give every child in Pinellas County the opportunity to learn to swim, Shultz emphasized.

“In Pinellas, we are a peninsula on a peninsula. We are surrounded by water, in addition to swimming pools and lakes,” Shultz said. “That’s what makes our home amazing, but it also increases the danger and the need for these types of programs.”

Shultz and Staley both acknowledged that the much-needed Lealman Swim Program wouldn’t be possible without the collective impact model set up in Lealman. Since 2016, Lealman has been designated as a Community Redevelopment Area, focusing on revitalization and community improvement initiatives. The collective impact model has helped various organizations, nonprofits and governmental entities come together to find actionable solutions to better serve the community.

“No one organization is able to take care of our kids; it doesn’t matter if it’s the school district, the Y, churches or other nonprofits,” Staley said. “We have to all work together to make a greater impact, and that’s why the collective impact process is such a strong opportunity to make a difference in the community.”

“Resources are slim, and there’s not always an opportunity for one organization to serve the whole individual,” Shultz added. “This partnership leans into the idea that you don’t have to be an expert in every space. This leveraging of resources helps nonprofits do more and be more effective, which ultimately benefits the community.”

Families interested in joining the Lealman Swim Program can sign up online at bit.ly/LealmanSwim or call the Lealman Exchange at (727) 464-5404.