Rose Branch Burrison can still remember her fear last September when she first stepped foot in the LEAP community pool. The 70-year-old, who lives off of George Street, was participating in her first ever swimming lesson.
Over the course of five weeks, Burrison progressed from holding the pool wall in the shallow end to confidently navigating the eight-and-a-half-foot deep end.
Monday morning, the first day of her second swim program, Burrison was back in the pool performing leg lifts. A shuttle had picked her up from the East Shore Community Senior Center and dropped her off at the LEAP pool at 31 Jefferson St., where the free swim program for New Haven seniors takes place.
The “Golden Swimmers” program is a collaboration between New Haven’s Elderly Services Department and LEAP (Leadership, Education and Athletics in Partnership Inc.), a nonprofit that provides fitness classes and swim instruction, among other educational and leadership programs. The first Golden Swimmers program had run from September through October. Monday marked the beginning of class for the second cohort, which can take up to 14 participants. The class meets twice weekly: Monday is water aerobics, and Thursday is swim class.
The program is now funded by a $15,000 grant from the Agency on Aging of South-Central Connecticut, plus $3,600 from the city’s general fund.
Burrison was excited on Monday to be back in the water. She said she was already feeling the health benefits from aquatic exercise.
“I have lung damage, and I’m breathing a little better,” Burrison said. “I walk better. I don’t have all the aches. Muscles that I couldn’t use at the gym because of my age–I get it in aerobics.”
Burrison was one of eight students in the pool Monday morning. Included in that group: a navy-swim trunk-wearing Mayor Justin Elicker, who submerged himself in the water shortly after finishing a pool-side press conference.
During the press conference, Elicker emphasized the importance of increasing accessibility to swimming lessons. “A lot of the time if your parents aren’t swimmers, they might not necessarily teach you how to swim,” Elicker said. “So we and the city are trying to do more work to change that generational challenge.”
Elicker also highlighted other swim-related initiatives the city is working on, including youth and adult swimming lessons at John S. Martinez Magnet School, priced at $100 for New Haven residents, and a proposal to transform the English Station power plant to a waterfront park with an outdoor public pool.
Blanca Sangurima, 71, was another swimmer who had returned from the inaugural cohort. Sangurima, who lives around Quinnipiac Avenue, said that she never taken a swimming class before Golden Swimmers. “I learned a lot,” Sangurima said. “I got a very nice teacher.” Before she started swimming, she would constantly feel tired–but the exercise had restored her energy. “Now I feel much better.”
Chantel Cave, Elderly Services Management and Policy Analyst for New Haven, emphasized the social dimension of the program. “As we grow older, staying active and engaged becomes increasingly crucial, not only for our physical health, but also for our mental and emotional well-being,” Cave said during the press conference. In addition to improving flexibility, strength, and cardiovascular health, the classes were also aimed at combating loneliness, Cave said.
Elvert Eden, a LEAP Aquatics Supervisor, also spoke about the health benefits of swimming at the conference, before leading the group in a series of water aerobic exercises.
Burrison, the returning participant, said that the classes provided an important social outlet. “We encourage one another, we know each other’s names, we laugh,” she said.
At Monday’s swim presser.