Outdoor pool proves a winner for swimming lessons

For well over four decades hundreds of young people have been plunging into the outdoor swimming pool in Arva to learn swimming and life saving skills, which have remained with them for life. Once again this year the pool is a hive of activity as fun loving children from all over the Arva area bring laughter and fun to swimming lessons. Over 90 children are participating in an intensive two week swimming and water safety and rescue course. They are taken from the beginners' level right through to swim 5, which includes conquering their five strokes - two of which are life saving strokes. They then progress onto safety, including completing non-contact rescues and this end of the course features four levels and then they carry out rescues. Working alongside Helen O'Hara, county secretary Cavan Area Water Safety committee, are instructors Lesley Harrison Brady, Breege Scott, Colm Smyth, and the Arva area organiser Mrs Margaret Flynn. They include all ages from four years upwards in the course and there were a number adults learning life saving on the course. The course is intensive for the two week duration and Helen says it is amazing to see the transformation over that time.Many reading this will presume you have to be a swimmer to save a life, however Helen explains: "A non-swimmer can save a life by throwing a piece of equipment out to the people in the water - or by just even talking to the person and encouraging them to the shore", said Helen O'Hara. An object can include a football, a drum, a piece of clothing or a stick.Helen says they teach the young people a number of levels of basic life support. "By being au fait with the basics of life support you can save a life", she advised. As the local area organiser, Margaret Flynn formulates the names for the various classes and ensures that the outdoor pool in Arva is ready for swimming lessons. She frequently attends area meetings and ensures that she is up to speed with all the latest procedures involved.As soon as the primary schools close, the course commences at this unique outdoor pool. The pool can be filled with water within a couple of hours, courtesy of a pumping system from the adjacent Garty Lake. It can also be emptied in the evenings very quickly in readiness for the re-filling the following day. The outdoor pool in Arva has been in place for over 40 years and many people who used it as children are now back with their own children for lessons. They include instructor Lesley Harrison, whose late mother Verlaine was the county secretary of Cavan Area Water Safety. Margaret Flynn, who is also the designated liaison person with responsibility for child protection, recalled that there were occasions when there were over 250 young people at the pool for training. However, when indoor pools opened in the county, it was predictable that people would gravitate to them. The children come to the course from all the various primary schools in the greater Arva area and the lessons provide a great opportunity for socialising, and wonderful interaction. Helen O'Hara pointed out that they get great assistance from Arva Town Development Committee in relation to keeping the facilities in good repair, and the good news is some further maintenance and enhancement work is in the pipeline.