At 11 a.m. on Tuesday, the city of Gainesville joined the collaborative effort to try to break the world record for conducting The World's Largest Swimming Lesson (WLSL).
The three Gainesville locations that joined team WLSL are the Andrew R. Mickle (Mickle) Pool, Dwight H. Hunter (Northeast) Pool, and H. Spurgeon Cherry (Westside) Pool.
Michelle Weydert, aquatic leader of the city of Gainesville, says the turnout for the World's Largest Swim Lesson was very successful at all three Gainesville pools. "We had about 92 participants at Westside pool, about 120 at Northeast Pool, and about 65 at Mickle Pool," said Weydert.
The World's Largest Swim Organization rallies as many participants as possible to prove the central point that swim lessons are prudent for water safety.
"Making it a big event and seeing how many people we can get into the Guinness World Record Book is just another plus," Weydert said.
The event is "a 30-minute free swim lesson to the public, mainly focusing on how important swim lessons are for children and their safety," said Weydert. "The whole idea is to bring awareness to children that swim lessons do save lives."
Weydert predicts the success of the event will lead Gainesville to participate in the WLSL again in the future. Weydert said it is a way to get the children participants to have a little fun in the water, but also be able to take important lessons away from it as well.
As far as the Guinness World Record is concerned, Weydert approximates "we will know by the end of June" whether the record was broken.