My impact story this week is about one of our team members at the Eureka location, Mr. Ayden, and his swimmer, Elias. Elias is a Level 1 swimmer who started with us as a swim voucher in mid-December and later enrolled after the voucher. Elias has special needs and gets very overwhelmed in loud environments and around the water.
On Elias’s first day, he came in screaming and throwing himself on the floor, refusing to get in the water due to his fear and how overwhelmed he was. During his first classes, he was so scared that an extra eyes had to get in the water with him the whole time because he wasn’t able to wait on the island alone.
After about a month, Elias started to make progress and was able to hold the island more independently. Recently, he has been coming in much happier and more comfortable, and he is now able to go underwater for 3–4 seconds on his own.
It’s amazing to see how much he has improved and how comfortable he has gotten with Mr. Ayden. This really shows the patience and trust Mr. Ayden has built with him and the impact we can make in each swimmer, turning that fear into something they can enjoy learning.