THREE GENERATIONS LEARN TO SWIM, GAIN CONFIDENCE AT THE Y
Greg and Karen Kerber moved to Eugene in 1981 and immediately found a connection at the Eugene Family YMCA.
Their oldest son, Jeremiah, started preschool at the Y while Greg started journalism graduate school at the University of Oregon. Jeremiah learned to swim while in preschool.
When Jeremiah’s brother, Josh, was six months old, Karen took the parent-child lessons in the small, shallow pool. At a year old, Josh was toddling to the edge of the big pool to try his strokes there. By the time he was 2, Josh was going off the diving board into the deep end—and more confident in the water than his dad.
Greg started swim lessons—called Improve Your Stroke at the time—so that he could enjoy pool time with Josh.
“I had never learned to swim as a kid,” he says. “Because I didn’t learn to swim, I didn’t feel safe.”
The lessons and newfound skills meant that Greg could take his family to recreation swim on Friday nights through his boys’ childhoods.
Learning to swim ended up helping to create a special relationship with his granddaughters as well. Josh’s girls—Rose and Hazel—started swimming at the Y with grandpa.
“Both of us felt that swimming was very important,” Karen says. “They don’t need to be Olympic swimmers but they need to be able to save themselves and have fun.”
Even though Rose, 7, and Hazel, 5, are still young, they are confident and experienced around water.
“Hazel was beyond what they taught in kinder swim lessons when she was 3,” Greg says.
Y swim instructor Kayla Boyce, who teaches both girls, says, “Rose is already swimming laps with flip turns.”
The Kerbers are longtime Y members who encourage others to learn to swim—to develop the love of a new sport but also to ensure safety around the water.
