High school student raises $1,000 for water safety program at YMCA of Greater Brandywine

With summer upon us, people are starting to take a dip in the pool or travel down the shore. One high school student, in particular, realized this and knew water safety was a huge issue she wanted to help address in Pennsylvania.

Madelyn DiBonaventura is a rising junior at Villa Maria Academy, who happens to be a competitive swimmer.

With a true passion for not only her sport but also water safety, she contacted Laura Milazzo Mackiewicz, Director of Volunteer & Civic Engagement at the YMCA of Greater Brandywine (YGBW), with an idea to address this topic within her community.

Madelyn's idea, with the help of Mackiewicz and the YMCA staff, was brought to life as a bi-lingual water safety program for adults.

“It was a joy to work alongside Madelyn,” shares Mackiewicz. “Because of her passion for swimming and water safety, Madelyn wanted to fundraise to increase water safety skills in our community. We decided to focus on teaching adults because the YMCA is already well-known for offering swim lessons for children. We also offer lessons for adults – but isn’t widely known.” 

Along with offered swim lessons, there's a free water safety program that emphasizes basic, life-saving water safety skills to local children. There's no cost to families, as the program is funded by donations to the organization's annual campaign.

“At a young age, Madelyn embodies many of our core values - responsibility, caring and respect. I’m so proud of her.” continues Mackiewicz.

With Madelyn's pledge of $1,000 to cover the costs of the new adult program, 'Safety Around Water', YGBW partnered with the pediatric office of LCH Health and Community services to connect with adults who would be interested in participating.

LCH CEO, Ronan W. Gannon, said, “We were delighted to host the YMCA and the community at our West Grove Pediatric office to support water safety initiatives. The YMCA is a wonderful partner of LCH in West Grove and we are proud to collaborate with them in promoting health and safety for our community's adults and children." 

The program kicked off with a water safety informational session, with instruction offered in both English and Spanish. Participants then traveled together to the Jennersville YMCA to test their skills in the pool.

The program addressed all basic swimming and survival skills geared to educate participants on keeping themselves and their families safe around the water.

For many adults this is their first time being in a pool and even learning how to properly safe someone from drowning.

“It is easy to take water safety skills for granted – but the reality is that many adults in our community do not know how to swim or save a loved one from drowning,” ” shares John Holets, Director of Aquatics for the Jennersville YMCA, a YGBW branch. “We are proud to close the knowledge gap in our community because many drownings are preventable with better access to water safety skills.” 

According to data from the Centers for Disease Control (CDC), drowning is the number one cause of death for children ages 1-4 in the United States. More than 15% of adults in our country do not know how to swim and over half have not had a swimming lesson.  

The program and annual campaign are officially underway at the YGBW. All donations benefit the Chester County community enabling the Y to give need-based scholarships for services like swim lessons, childcare and summer camp.

Click here to learn more about water safety at the YMCA.