GRAND PRAIRIE, Texas — Memorial Day weekend is the unofficial start to the summer season. Many will stay cool by spending time in a pool, lake or river, while others may steer clear of the water altogether. That’s because more than half of all Americans can’t swim or don’t have necessary basic swimming skills, according to a recent survey from the American Red Cross.
On Saturday, the pool at the YMCA in Oak Cliff and several others across North Texas will be full of kids and adults who want to learn how to swim.
Grand Prairie City Council member Junior Ezeonu was just a college senior when he decided to dip his toe into North Texas politics at 21 years old.
“I’ve been on the city council since June 2022, so now it will be four years in about two weeks,” said Ezeonu.
The 26-year-old is also the deputy mayor pro tem for Grand Prairie.
After his reelection last year, the young politician looked to make a splash in his city in more ways than one.
“The YMCA director, we talked about this, he knew I wasn’t someone who knew how to swim and he really pushed me and said ‘Junior, you learning how to swim can not only just help you save a life in the future, you can save hundreds if not thousands of lives by inspiring other people that don’t know how to swim,’” said Ezeonu.
A 2024 Poolonomics survey of 3,000 Americans showed the councilman is not alone. Nearly 13% of Texans surveyed say they can’t swim, with the highest percentage of non-swimmers being 18 to 24 years old, followed closely by those 55 and older.
“My grandmother learned in her 60s,” said Jennifer Pewitt, associate vice president of YMCA Metropolitan Dallas.
Over the last 20 years, Pewitt has overseen all the swimming at the YMCAs across North Texas. She said child drownings have been a problem since she started her career.
“That part of it hasn’t changed in 20 years. You have to supervise your kids differently when you’re around the pool and that’s not a message that we have clearly gotten across to parents,” said Pewitt.
We’re weeks away from the first day of summer and already 15 kids have drowned in Texas, according to the Texas Department of Family and Protective Services. Data shows there was also an increase in child drownings from 2023 to 2024, with 13 more lives lost.
“Because there was a lack of reporting for many, many years,” said Pewitt.
Despite not knowing how to swim, when Ezeonu was around 11 or 12 years old, he unknowingly jumped into the deep end of a pool at a friend’s birthday party.
“I had a lady that came and rescued me glory be to God, but it truly traumatized me and for about 12 to 13 years I never touched a pool,” said Ezeonu.
Until now.
Ezeonu dove into swim lessons last summer, and that decision is already making waves.
“So we’re very excited. Junior has inspired some other community celebrities to come out and learn to swim. And so we got some of our very own board members, one of our Grand Prairie police chiefs,” said Michael Garcia, executive director of Grand Prairie YMCA.
Ezeonu may have started as a young politician, but with each lap and lesson he’s showing it’s never too late to overcome your fears.
“It’s nowhere near as scary,” said Ezeonu.
Pewitt said when a child is seen in an emergency department for a submersion event and the child or the adult dies, sometimes it isn’t marked as drowning because there’s a cause of death such as a multi-organ failure.
In the past, there was nothing that said you had to report it. But now, she said, there has been a big push from the Department of Health to make sure that drownings are reported correctly.