- July 12, 2025
Palm Coast Aquatics Supervisor Ally Rock-Yanochko leads the swim lesson. Photo by Brent Woronoff
Aquatics Specialist Zach Sundberg helps a participant flip from his stomach to his back. Photo by Brent Woronoff
Getting wet at the World's Largest Swim Lesson on June 26 at the Palm Coast Aquatics Center. Photo by Brent Woronoff
Lesson participants kick from the side of the pool. Photo by Brent Woronoff
Aquatics Supervisor Ally Rock-Yanochko demonstrates a rescue tube. Photo by Brent Woronoff
Aquatics specialist Zach Sundberg passes out rings for lesson participants to retrieve from the bottom of the pool. Photo by Brent Woronoff
A swim lesson participant floats on her back. Photo by Brent Woronoff
Children sit on the side of the pool to begin the World's Largest Swimming Lesson. Photo by Brent Woronoff
Participants practice their breathing in the latter part of the World's Largest Swimming Lesson at the Palm Coast Aquatics Center. Photo by Brent Woronoff
Aquatics Supervisor Ally Rock-Yanochko retrieves rings from lesson participants who held their breath and picked them up from the bottom of the pool. Photo by Brent Woronoff
Swimmers at the Palm Coast Aquatics Center practice their strokes at the end of the World's Largest Swimming Lesson. Photo by Brent Woronoff
Sixty-eight children at the Palm Coast Aquatics Center learned about water safety and basic swimming skills as part of the World's Largest Swimming Lesson on Thursday, June 26.
This was the 16th year of the annual worldwide event with more than 40,000 children and parents participating in 46 states and 21 countries.
Aquatics Supervisor Ally Rock-Yanochko led the 30-minute lesson in Palm Coast. The Aquatics Center has been participating in the event for years, she said.
"This is a wonderful program and it's free," Rock-Yanochko said. "Kids get to learn skills that help save lives."
The World's Largest Swimming Lesson was created by the World Waterpark Association to bring attention to the prevalence of drowning which is the leading cause of accidental death for children ages 1-4, according to the Children's Safety Network.
The World's Largest Swimming Lesson is annually held in late June because July consistently ranks as the deadliest month for drowning incidents, and the the Fourth of July weekend is particularly a high-risk period, according to WLSL.org.
"We invited our Palm Coast camps to the lesson, and we had some public participation as well," Rock-Yanochko said.
"All the information in the lesson we also teach in our regular lessons," she said.
For information on swim lessons at the Palm Coast Aquatics Center, go to palmcoast.gov/aquatics-center.
