There’s plenty of cold weather outside in Chapel Hill this month. But you wouldn’t be able to tell that if walking into the pool room at Goldfish Swim School.
“The temperature of the water is 90 degrees.” says co-owner Danelle Alex. “The temperature of the air is somewhere between 90 and 92 degrees.”
Danelle Alex co-owns the Goldfish location with her husband, Manuel. She says the warmer environment is intentionally done to help the young children taking classes feel more comfortable.
“By taking away barriers such as cold pools or air,” she says, “we give kids the opportunity to relax, feel at home and get ready to learn.”
Alex and her husband moved to Chapel Hill to build the swim school after being involved with the company while living in Dayton, Ohio. She says it took a little more than four months for the long, indoor swimming pool to be constructed out of multiple suites in Rams Plaza.
The Chapel Hill location marks the 96th facility for Goldfish Swim School, with two locations nearby in Cary and Wake Forest. Alex says she and Manuel were driven to have their own location because of the company’s goal to help children learn water safety.
The Center for Disease Control and Prevention reports that drowning is responsible for more deaths among children ages 1-4 than any other cause besides birth defects. Alex says Goldfish’s purpose it to address that sad statistic.
“That’s completely preventable and that’s what [Goldfish] set out to do,” she says. “In our classes, we work on water safety techniques every day and talk about being safe around the water. It’s really important to start talking with our kids very young about this because it will stick.”
Goldfish has classes for children as young as four months old, using early exposure in water to make them comfortable, develop early motor skills and create bonding with parents. Other classes range from toddlers to 12-year-olds, with the opportunity to participate in in-house swim meets.
Alex says being the mother of a five-year-old boy helped drive her to bring the swim school to more parents in North Carolina.
“If we hadn’t jumped into this adventure,” says Alex, “I would’ve been one of those parents who wasn’t quite sure where to put my son into swim lessons. We want to provide that [option] for the community too, by being accessible and flexible to make sure they can help their kids learn how to swim as well.”
Goldfish held a ribbon cutting ceremony for their location in Rams Plaza on Wednesday and classes are now available.
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