[StBernard] Red Cross Swimming Lessons

[Westley Annis]

This is exactly why we need to get that program back up and running for next
summer. I have been in contact with several of the other teachers and
lifeguards from the red cross lessons and we are all willing to jump back
into it. We could probably even find lots of help from among the teachers as
well as the parents to clean and refurbish the Gary Dean Pool, where the
lessons had taken place prior to Katrina. The first session traditionally
started the first week of June, so we have plenty of time to do it. 

Melissa 



Arabi girl who swam to safety in flood using lessons she learned at Red
Cross swim class to be recommended for public service announcements

September 15, 2006 
By: Steve Cannizaro 

Bernard Loze and daughter Sara, 8, who saved herself in flood by using
lessons learned in an American Red Cross swimming program. STEVE CANNIZARO
PHOTO.

An 8-year-old Arabi girl who swam to safety in the flood last year by using
lessons she learned in an American Red Cross swimming class is being
recommended for public service announcements stressing parents should make
sure their children learn to swim.
Sara Loze, who lived on Esteban Street with her parents Tina and Bernard
Loze, is being recommended for use in the public service promos by Judy
Hoiffmeister, chief administrative officer for the Red Cross chapter in St.
Bernard Parish, as well as a parish Council member.

"We want to put her on a public service announcement for the American Red
Cross'' as an example of the importance of children learning to swim,
Hoffmeister said.

"Her mother and father attribute her saving herself (in the Katrina flood)
because of the swimming lessons she learned in the American Red Cross water
safety program,'' in the summer just before Katrina struck, Hoffmeister
said. She said she is recommending that national American Red Cross
officials use the girl in public service messages.

The child and her parents, now living in Denham Springs, visited Chalmette
on Thursday.
"We're thankful for her taking those lessons,'' Bernard Loze said of his
daughter.

Sara, who was seven at the time of the storm but now is 8, said it was
"scary'' to have to swim from a tree across the street to a roof after water
had risen above the ceiling in the home.

The girl, now in third-grade, said she kicked her legs the way she learned
in the eight one-hour lessons she had last year in the Red Cross program
held in the Gary Dean swimming pool at 2700 Palmisano Boulevard in
Chalmette.
She was holding on to a tire that her mother found for her to use as the
family swam to safety.

Tina and Bernard Loze said they were proud of the girl's courage as the
winds of the hurricane blew and the water kept rising.

The mother said the family moved into the attic as the waters rose, then
made it to a tree in front of their home, then had to make it to the roof on
a home across the street from them in the 1600 block of Esteban Street in
Arabi.

Hoffmeister said the girl's story underscores the importance of all children
learning to swim.

She said St. Bernard had the largest swimming program in the state before
Katrina but the Dean pool, donated by Council Chairman Lynn Dean in memory
of his deceased son, Gary Dean, was damaged in the hurricane and can't be
used at this time. The swim program was partnered with the parish school
system, Hoffmeister said.

The Red Cross chapter in St. Bernard "looks forward to working with the
School Board to see what we can do'' about repairing the pool, she said.