SEELEY LAKE — For a town named after a body of water, it’s unexpected that most of the elementary students in the area can’t swim.
The Seeley Lake Lions Club is using grant money to start swim lessons in the town, hoping to prevent any future drowning. The lessons will begin within the month.
In 2022, the Lions Club conducted a survey with Seeley Lake Elementary School– a K-8 school with 185 students. The study showed that less than half of the kids know how to swim.
The club saw the results as a serious problem for the community.
“This community has suffered through some unfortunate incidents where children have drowned, and it doesn't take long to find– on an internet search across Montana– there are a lot of accidental drownings,” committee chairman, Rich Westin, says. “It's higher in rural areas because of all the natural water features that people end up in.”
Westin also did research on national drowning statistics, noting that the CDC found over 4,000 drowning deaths occurred annually between 2012-2021. Montana has one of the worst rates of drowning.
There is no community pool in Seeley Lake, unusual for even small towns. In Thompson Falls, for example, there is a public pool, despite having a smaller population than Seeley.
For kids in Seeley Lake, the closest hub for swimming lessons is Missoula– an hour’s drive away.
“I mean, swim lessons are a couple days a week, so making that trip back and forth, the cost and the scheduling– usually it's in the middle of the day or early afternoon– so it's very difficult for most families to fit that in,” Josh Gibbs, superintendent of Seeley Lake Elementary School and parent of two children under six, says.
Even if families were able to make the commute to Missoula for lessons, almost every class is filled.
“They have no more capacity for more lessons in Missoula,” Westin says.
Seeing a clear need, The Lions Club applied for the Missoula County Impact Grant. The Impact Grant is part of the Rural Grant Program, which began in 2023 as a way to fund community projects in rural cities within Missoula County.
The county awarded the Seeley Lake Lions Club $4,000 for the project. Along with $2,500 from the Seeley Lake Community Foundation, the club was left with $1,500 to cover the total cost of providing swim lessons.
The club will ask for small donations from students as a way to cover the final cost.
“What we're thinking is people can feel free to donate however much they want, but we don't want this to be a burden on anybody,” Westin says. “We don't want them to be discouraged from bringing their children here. So we're talking a $5-10 donation right now.”
The lessons will be held at the Double Arrow Lodge swimming pool, and is curated for children 1-14 years old. The instructors are local business owners who volunteered to be trained by a red cross employee.
The Seeley Lake Lions Club is still finalizing a sign up link for the lessons.
Moving forward, the swimming lessons will need to move to a more permanent location. Westin hopes the community will see the value of lessons and support funding to build a community pool.
They considered hosting lessons in the lake, but they don't want the class to be dependent on weather.
“We hope that we can end up showing this as a true need and then obtain other funding to actually open a swimming pool in Seeley Lake that can be used year round for lessons and recreation,” Westin says.
Applications for the Missoula County Impact Grant are due Feb. 29. The county encourages any organization, community coalition or individual that has a project with clear community value to apply. Applications and more information can be found on the county website.
“This community here of 1,500 permanent residents are very generous, and we feel a very large obligation to invest that money back into the community in things that people really need, as well as want,” Westin says.
Visit http://missoula.co/ruralgrant for more information about the Missoula County Rural Impact Grant program.
Missoula County accepts Impact Grant applications once a year. These grants are intended for larger community projects that may take longer than 90 days to implement or complete but can be finished by the end of 2024. Visit https://t.co/vTruO04f42 for more information.
— Missoula County, Montana (@MissoulaCounty) February 6, 2024
