RANGELEY — Rangeley Health and Wellness will be offering four children’s water safety swim sessions starting at 2 p.m. on Friday, August 16.

Swim Instructor Danika Sullivan will lead the course and will be assisted by Fitness Director Brittani Martin.

Unlike the usual instruction given in the therapy pool at the Rangeley Health and Wellness Fitness Center at 25 Dallas Hill Road, this special session focusing on water safety will take place in Oquossoc at Haines Landing.

Sullivan, an engineering manager for a medical device company, Medtronic, has been giving swim instruction part-time in Rangeley since 2021, shortly after she and her husband Patrick Sullivan, Development Associate at Rangeley Lakes Heritage Trust, moved here full time.

Originally from Lake Linganore, Maryland, Sullivan has been teaching, mostly in the summers, since she was 15 years old. Eventually she was trained at Serenity Pool Management, also in Maryland.

At first the course was taught at Rangeley’s Town Park, and then at a private home, but for the last two years it has taken place at Haines Landing, which Sullivan thinks is a more suitable location.

“So originally, we did that at the town dock,” Sullivan explained. “We’ve moved it around a couple times, but the goal of that was with so many visitors in the summer and full time residents that have kids who live right around the lake, we felt that the pool itself didn’t really do justice to some of the challenges that come with living around water bodies. So, we decided to run the lake safety class and it went really well the first year and so we continued iterating on that.

“Basically, what we do is teach kids about what they can do to be safe around the water and what to do in an event that is unexpected. So that could be falling in the water with your clothes on, or maybe having a canoe tip over. Or being out on the water when the weather changes unexpectedly and so just kind of educating them and trying to do it in a group atmosphere so that they can learn how to work as a team. And also have fun with it but take it seriously at the same time.”

Ages “5 to 12, is probably the prime age that this would be great for because they’re still learning, but they’re not experts on the water yet,” she continued. “They’re still having to wear life jackets and maybe getting to the age that they’re more independent on the water on their own. [They] might not have an adult with an arm’s reach anymore. So that’s our target group, but we can be flexible. People could also reach out to me if they have specific questions.”