Water safety taught ahead of Apache Junction pool opening

By Richard Dyer
Mail | X: @RHDyer

Adults and children from as far south as Queen Creek attended the free April Pools Day water-safety event held recently at Superstition Shadows Aquatic Center in Apache Junction. The city swimming pool opens May 25 for the summer.

With free open swim, the aquatic center at 1091 W. Southern Ave. was open for April Pools Day on Saturday, April 27, with water-safety activities, tours of emergency vehicles, the mobile library, cardiopulmonary resuscitation demonstrations and free lunch served by Superstition Fire and Medical District. Booths and tables had representatives including the Apache Junction Police Department and StandUp AJ drug-prevention coalition.

Apache Junction residents Michelle and Corey Holloway brought their children to the event.

“We have little kids and we try to keep them busy. They kind of checked out the mobile library and they learned they don’t have to have a library card but they can use their student ID. And they checked out the CPR stuff but I’m not sure how much they learned from that,” Michelle Holloway said. “They didn’t try it; they just watched.”

It’s important to learn water safety, she said, “to prevent drowning.”

“I like that they are doing the CPR and the fire department is out here,” Corey Holloway said of the annual event.

Queen Creek resident Nathan Howard attended to swim and also to learn cardiopulmonary resuscitation, he said.

“CPR — to save lives,” he said.

“If someone’s dying, you can save them from dying,” Apache Junction resident Matt Bloom said at April Pools Day about CPR.

CPR instruction

CPR with breaths was shown to adults and children who attended April Pools Day.

“Compression-only (CPR), we still have oxygen in our bodies. When we drown the water depletes that oxygen — we don’t have any — so somebody has to put it in, so now we’re back to 30 compressions, two breaths, 30 compressions, two breaths,” Deputy Fire Marshal Tina Gerola of the Superstition Fire District said at the April Pools Day event.

Young and old can learn CPR, she said.

“I taught my 4-year-old granddaughter. When they get old enough to press from the center of their chest, I think everybody needs to learn. When they can do compressions and do the actual motion, teach them,” Gerola said.

Water safety

Gerola taught parents at the event about the need to have fences around home pools and all doors — including doggie doors — with access to water needing locks to keep children safe.

“We had a 2-year-old get out through a doggie door and drown right here in Mesa. So any access that kids can do, they just have to be locked. Because we can’t watch them 24 hours a day,” she said.

When the children are in the water under the watchful eyes of a parent, they should be wearing Coast Guard-approved life vests instead of floaties, she said.

“No inflatable-anything. Those are toys. If you’re buying it for the pool in the toy section and blowing it up, that’s a toy, right? Coast-Guard-approved everything,” she said.

Adults should also have Coast-Guard-approved life vests.

“And then we have to stress to parents — Lake Pleasant had how many drownings last year? Over 20. And it was mostly parents in front of their children because the children got in trouble or somebody else got in trouble. Their kids had their life vests on but not their mom and dad and their dad drowns in front of their kids,” Gerola said. “So that was another message — in open water and our lakes, just because you don’t have a pool, it doesn’t mean that you don’t have to have water safety and that’s for life.”

Apache Junction resident Casey Neilson attended April Pools Day for his children to swim at the aquatic center and also he learned about water safety.

“Basically watch the kids around water, make sure that a parent is watching them the whole time and don’t be distracted,” he said of what he learned.

“We learned the same stuff — just to make sure that you’re watching them, you’re always watching them and you’re not distracted,” Apache Junction resident Lindsey Menhennett said.

Apache Junction resident Laura Triggs attended to have fun and also to learn about water safety.

“It’s all preventable,” she said of drownings.

Richard H. Dyer can be reached at rdyer@iniusa.org, or on X @rhdyer. To voice your opinion on this story, connect with us at AzOpinions@iniusa.org.

Richard Dyer
Managing Editor | East Valley

rdyer@iniusa.org

Meet Richard
Richard Dyer has worked at Independent Newsmedia Inc. USA since 1987, starting his career in Apache Junction as a copy editor and being promoted over the years to work as the editor of the Mesa Independent, news services editor for the East Valley office in Apache Junction, managing editor for the East Valley office, news services editor for the East Valley office and eventually also for the newspapers at INI’s then-Chandler office, managing editor again and as a news editor covering Apache Junction/Gold Canyon and Queen Creek. He helped start the Florence Independent while the news editor covering Apache Junction and Mesa news. In January 2023, he became associate managing editor for the East Valley newspapers and in August 2023 became managing editor for the East Valley newspapers of Chandler/Tempe, Gilbert, Queen Creek, Florence, Mesa and Apache Junction/Gold Canyon, while also reporting on Mesa and Apache Junction/Gold Canyon.  

Community: Since 2009, he has worked as a volunteer to design The Blue Guitar Magazine, Blue Guitar Jr. magazine and Unstrung magazine, which are projects of The Arizona Consortium for the Arts; and since 2014, has been overseeing the art submissions. 

Education: University of Arizona with a master of arts in journalism and a bachelor of science in agricultural communication. Also continuing education at Mesa Community College in welding in a metal art sculpture class.

Random fact: Saw his first tornado on May 31, 2010, which was classified as an EF-2, as part of a stormchasing tour group.

Hobbies: He is an artist of welded-steel sculptures, selling his artwork at juried and non-juried art shows.