Reflected on the surface of an indoor swimming pool are boys and girls in swimsuits who fist-bump and high-five their parents before grabbing kickboards, adjusting their goggles, and entering the water with a splash. It’s in these pool lanes, under the watchful gaze of a lifeguard, that a broader story of access, safety, and opportunity ripples outward. This is Triangle Aquatic Center’s (TAC) Make a Splash program.
TAC Swim Academy Associate Director Steve Hoffman oversees the daily operations of the facility’s learn-to-swim programs, managing curriculum development, instructor training, scheduling, and program quality. Within the Make a Splash initiative, he helps to coordinate the delivery of swim instruction, ensure that safety and teaching standards are maintained, and work to “provide meaningful access to swimming and water safety education for children in our community who may not otherwise have that opportunity.”
The Make a Splash program was launched through a partnership with the USA Swimming Foundation and its national Make a Splash initiative, which focuses on preventing drowning by expanding access to swimming lessons and water safety education. Drowning is a leading cause of unintentional injury-related death for children, so adoption at TAC was a mission statement in action.
Make a Splash aligns with TAC’s broader aim of developing swimmers for lifelong success. Because Steve frames water safety as “a foundational life skill that helps children build confidence, independence, and resilience both in and out of the pool,” the program functions as a doorway through which swimmers learn essential safety skills and discover the joy of the water. The program doesn’t end with a lesson, as Steve says: “We hope these early experiences encourage healthy, active lifestyles and foster a lifelong love for swimming and aquatic activities.”…