Children and families all across the globe participated in the World's Largest Swimming Lesson Thursday.
The worldwide event created by the World Waterpark Association aims to teach children how to swim. According to the CDC, drowning is the second leading cause of unintentional injury death in children ages 1 to 14 in the United States.
Locally, the World's Largest Swimming Lesson event kicked off at noon Thursday at the J. Franklyn Bourne Memorial Pool on 6500 Calmos St. in Seat Pleasant, Maryland.
Former Olympic swimmer Maddy Crippen joined 114 local kids and their families as they learned the life-saving skill of swimming.
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Despite the number of fatal drownings, there is good news. The number of reported child drownings in swimming pools involving children younger than 5 has decreased 17 percent nationwide since 2010, according to the CPSC.
According to World's Largest Swimming Lesson organizers, more than 600 locations in 27 countries participated in the event.
