Camp teaches kids to have safe fun in the water

WILMINGTON, NC (WWAY) — More than 100 kids are spending this week at Zac camp. That’s a camp that teaches kids all about water safety. 

It was started to remember a little boy who drowned back in 2007.

With the summer heat in full force, you’re probably spending more time at the beach or pool.

“I learned some new stuff today and it was fun,” Swimmer Dominic Shabazz said.

At the Brigade Boys and Girls club, kids just like Dominic are learning how to stay safe while in the water.

Shabazz said, “I was learning how to swim and not drown and we were learning how to float and keeping our bellies up.”

The foundation’s mission is to teach kids about water safety.

While the program travels across the country, it’s the first time in the Port City.

“The children themselves are not getting education in school,” Co-Founder Karen Cohn said. “They aren’t getting it anywhere else.”

Cohn and her husband are spreading the word about the A-B-C and D’s of water safety: Adult supervision, barriers around water, water safety classes, drain safety.

“My husband and I co founded the Zac Foundation after we lost our son Zachary in a pool drain entrapment in 2007,” Cohn said.

The chose which locations to go to based on the number of drownings and area close to water like Wilmington.

“It’s very fulfilling for myself and for my family to have the opportunity to teach them,” Cohn said.

From in-pool swimming lessons to safety classes with first responders, the goal is to share the importance of water safety to everyone especially our littlest ones.

According to Cohn, drowning is the second leading cause of unintentional death for children under the age of 14  and the leading cause for ages one through five.

She hopes one day those numbers can decrease with the help of the Zac camps.