Ep 18 | Safe (& Free) Aftercare?

SPEAKER_00 0:00

How encompassed it would be for not only the children on the team, but the parents on the team. Um you know, once you set foot on the pool deck, it's your family.

SPEAKER_01 0:17

Welcome to the Voices United in Education podcast. Each week we showcase the teachers, administrators, and community members who go the extra mile to contribute to the success of every student in Escambia County. You'll meet the real people behind the titles and learn about the amazing resources to support every student's success. If you're a busy working parent, you're a busy worrying parent, especially when it comes to after school care. Do you give your child a key to the house with instructions to do their chores and finish their homework? Or do you send them to aftercare? Will they be safe? Will they make friends? My next guest is the founder and executive director of a nonprofit that's not only providing a judgment and bullying free zone for kids, but also a place where they, their families, and teachers can reap cognitive, academic, social, and physical benefits all for free. It's SeaStars Aquatics. They're a USA swimming registered team that provides individualized attention as part of a structured competitive swim team program for kids who are economically, physically, and mentally challenged. Did I mention it was free? Today she's going to share stories that paint the picture of how success in the water equals success everywhere else. Washington High graduate, competitive coach, resilient dynamo, Robin Heller.

SPEAKER_00 1:45

Hey Meredith.

SPEAKER_01 1:47

Thank you for doing this. I so appreciate it.

SPEAKER_00 1:50

Oh, thank you for having me. One of the biggest things about Sea Stars is it's a diamond in the rough, and a lot of people, even though we've been here for 18 years, don't know that we're here. So word of mouth is the best way to get us out. And um, since we take all children and that qualify for the team, and um we work directly with the Escambia County School District as far as timeline and our our schedule and everything, it was perfect to be able to talk to the Escambie County uh kids and parents and educators and let them know about Sea Stars and what we do to help the kiddos out.

SPEAKER_01 2:23

Exactly. And I I love letting people know about it because it's such an amazing, an amazing program. And you're, you know, you're Coach Robin. You know, I call you Robin, your mom calls you Robbie, but I think most people call you Coach Robin, and that's how they know you. And Seastars has come a long way since you and your husband started it in 2005. And, you know, it's it's hard to convey the the specialness of the team if you're not there, if you're not really experiencing it and seeing the stories play out in front of you. So yeah, tell us a story, Coach Robin. When you're having a hard day, what swimmer success story brings you back to life?

SPEAKER_00 3:04

Oh, um, well, I've had, you know, when I started it a long time ago, I had a lot of hard days. And then about 10 years was a big mark where we were cranking and everything was rolling and it was wonderful. And, you know, COVID made it rough. And I needed to rely on a lot of those stories to, you know, kind of remind myself, and the universe is crazy the way it is, but I was reminded a lot, you know, on the downtimes. But I have two uh that I'll probably talk about today. And um, the first one, you know, if you know me and and you know sea stars, you've probably heard me talk about this young man, but he's probably like one of my biggest success stories. His name's Jawan Blankenship, he goes by Dee Dee. Um, tried to get away from Dee Dee when he was swimming uh at PHS, and I went to one swim meeting mailed for him, and then everybody at PHS knew him as Dee Dee again. Um but he came to the pool at 11. Um, he has an infant, was dropped off at his grandparents' front porch, and um he was raised by his grandparents and had a lot of resentment because of that and a lot of anger, and lived in um, we were in the Salvation Army pool, which is over on North Kew Street, and it's not the safest, nicest neighborhood, but that's why we swim there is to help the kids that need the most help. Um, so Dee Dee would walk to the pool and well, he played football at the Salvation Army, and then found out about a pool, and then he had piers there, and so he got in the water and swam for about a year with his head up and wouldn't put his face in the water in lane four and worked hard. And that's the beauty of Sea Stars, is the work he put in is what you get out. And a lot of the kids don't get that at home. Uh so the beauty of the sport of swimming is water levels of playing field, no matter your ability or disability. It doesn't sea color, race, or blindness, or autism, or opposition to the defiant disorder. It just meets you where you want to be met. And um, you know, Dee Dee, the best thing about swimming is it's a great sport all the way across the board. All athletes can cross-train. So Dee Dee was a football player and he was a gifted athlete. Like that kid, he could do anything he wanted to. Um, but a few broken bones and collarbone injuries later, his grandfather said, you know, Dee Dee, you're really good at a lot of different things, but you know, you've got injuries in other sports, and swimming is relatively an injury-free sport. Uh so he took to swimming and he um swam at PHS. He swam for us, he made Southeastern, which is a big, a big deal. He was a lifeguard for us. Um, he was a lifeguard for the YMCA and for the city of Pensacola. He was a swim lesson instructor for us, uh, he was a coach for us. Um he was my first one to get an athletic scholarship to Delta State in diving. Um, he ended up being a diver in high school and through the sport of swimming, he ended up getting the diving scholarship. And he's a fifth-year senior um getting his master's degree at Delta State, and he comes back every year and visits the team. Every every break he has, he comes, and he's still a role model to the kids. And kids that never even swam with him look up to DD. Um he coached uh at Washington High School Summer League this summer. He was the diving coach and the summer league coach. Um, so it's really cool to see how much the sport has influenced his life in a positive way, not only his sport physically, but emotionally and socially and behaviorally. And um his grandpa Erskine always, you know, I don't see him often anymore. I went to he had a a meet in January at Delta State, and it was his first meet that his grandpa got to go see him in diving. And so, you know, I got to give Erskine a big hug. And, you know, it's been eight years since he swam on the team, and uh not that long, like four years, six years, four years since he swam on the team. And you know, Erskine says, you know, oh Coach Robin, you're the reason he's here. It's it's not Coach Robin, it's what the team is, and I think that's the beauty of the team is when we started it, we didn't realize how encompassed it would be for not only the children on the team, but the parents on the team. Um, you know, once you set foot on the pool deck, it's your family. Um a lot of the kids don't have strongly strong family. Um, a lot of kids are single family households. A lot of kids, the parents are doing the best they can, but um the parents are just the the kids are just missing something. And so when they walk there, it's a safe place. Nobody is ever treated poorly, nobody's ever bullied. You are met where you need to be met. You have expectations, a lot of expectations. Um, and I think that's kind of where the the special needs aspect of the team is a little bit different because we expect those kids to push themselves and to work. And we probably retain about 50% of the kids because there's two types of special needs parents out there, the ones that want their kids to be treated like everybody else, and the ones that like really want their kids to be treated like everybody else, and we treat everyone uh with expectations and uh at the same time we keep we meet every kid where they need to be met, and hopefully we can make their childhood better through the sport of swimming.

SPEAKER_01 8:32

I think so. And it's interesting to hear you talk about Didi, all the different areas of his life. It provided a safe after-school activity, it provided an injury-free way of staying active, it gave him income, which is always major.

SPEAKER_00 8:50

Yeah, when I started the team, you know, in 24 years old, I was super naive and I was like, oh, every kid will get an athletics scholarship to college. And I was like, oh, we have 15-year-olds are in seventh grade. We need to figure out a way to have them make money and they can be lifeguards. And there's a huge demand right now for lifeguards. We had six kids certified this year as lifeguards, four of them were instructors for us. Um, another like five or six of our kids were lifeguards this summer for the YMCA or for Washington High School. So it's really cool that even if they're not directly working for us, it doesn't matter if they're working for us. We want them to find a niche that they want to be to be productive people. And that's the biggest thing is, you know, we never discourage them about like not coming to practice or there's a requirement that you have to be there. We're just happy you're there. And so whatever you want it to be for you, we can make it what it needs to be for you.

SPEAKER_01 9:42

It's and it's insane that all of that is free. It offers so much value. It's an after-school activity that provides injury-free, you know, physical fitness that also can become income for young people that can also become, in Dee Dee's case, a college scholarship to get his master's degree. And the team is not owned or operated by Scambia County Public Schools, but you do a you have a lot of overlap and a lot of collaboration. Can you tell me about that?

SPEAKER_00 10:14

Sure. Um, we have rented the Salvation Army Pool, which is at 1501 North Kew Street. It's a heated indoor facility, and a lot of people, whether you're born and raised in Pensacola, no one knows it exists. It's a diamond in the rough and it's perfect. And um we have had other locations want us to go there, but we choose to go there because of the collaboration that we have with the Salvation Army. They do have um an after-school program and they do have a bus system that uh if they go, if the kids go to Dixon or SL Jones, then there's a bus stop there. And then there's also a bus stop uh for the kids that go to CAYs. They do have to coordinate that with the school system though. Um, I think through C through WISE's.

SPEAKER_01 10:56

So coordinate it instead of dropping off in their neighborhood, dropping it off, dropping the kids off at the Salvation Army. Okay.

SPEAKER_00 11:03

Um Salvation Army always it has different leadership, and we have new leadership right now, and they're really, really, really building the community center program. Um, for the first time that I've been there in the 15 years I've been there, it's really, really positive. They have free meals, third and after school programs that are church-based because the Salvation Army is a church. We rent the pool, we are our own nonprofit, we are not affiliated as far as that as a religious organization at all. We just rerent the facility from them. Um, but they do provide uh meals during the summertime and summer camp in the summer. Um, they provide youth activity programs, and then we have practice um from 5 to 615 for our beginning swimmers or five to seven for our advanced swimmers. So um, if transportation is an issue, we have had lots of walkers in the past. Um, lots of my kids have walked across Pace Boulevard to get to practice, um, which is scary. But the bus system does drop those elementary school kids off. Uh so if the kids do know how to swim and they want to be on the swim team, we have tryouts every Wednesday at 4 45. They just have to show up and they have to get across a pool. It doesn't matter how they do it. Um, it's 25-yard pool, it's three and a half feet in the shallow end, nine and a half feet in the deep end, but it doesn't matter how deep the water is because you swim on top of it. Um I feel like you've said that before. Maybe a few times. Maybe a few. And uh but then we have our special needs aspect of the program. And uh special needs is really hard to put into place. I know right now politically correctness, it's not the most, but it works for us. And it it's quote unquote wouldn't fit in a typical swim team setting. So for people that are in the Escambia County School District, if the kids have an IEP, they probably would fit into CSTARS. We have lots of kids with physical disabilities, amputees, um visual losses, hearing, deaf, um, things like that. We also have behavioral issues and lots of autism, lots of autism spectrum kids. But uh we have that's based on tier, based on water ability, again, not disability, and those are practices Mondays and Wednesdays from 3:30 to 4, 4 to 4:30, and 430 to 5. So it's progressional. So the beginning practice is 3:30 to 4. Um that's mainly just taking direction from me, the coach, that is not in the water. So I'm off on the deck, I'm not in the water with the kids, but they're getting verbal direction, kind of getting to learn independence and going up and down the pool. Some of the kids in a half an hour only swim like three or four laps. Some of them will swim like 20. Um, but it's pretty raw. And typically we start learning like freestyle and backstroke in that group. And then once our following directions build their stamina, they get progressed into the four o'clock group and then the 430 group. And then we do have about 12 kids that have transitioned from the 430 special needs practice, and they compete, they practice with the quote unquote regular kids uh from 5 to 615, and we have two swimmers that practice from five to seven.

SPEAKER_01 14:12

I would do want to spend some time um talking about the kids with special needs because it's so the water, there's something special about it, right? And you've seen that. You've had nonverbal swimmers get in the water and suddenly they have found their voice.

SPEAKER_00 14:28

Yeah, I'm not a therapist, first of all. I'm a swim coach. Um, but there's something about the water. There's just something about the water, and there's something about the sport of swimming. And the sport of swimming isn't for everybody, but when it's for you, it's for you. There ain't nothing fun about going up and down and staring at a black line for a half an hour or two hours every single day. But when you love it, you love it. And um, especially with the autism spectrum disorder, there's, you know, the wandering and drowning is huge. And we get a lot of kids through the program that mainly it's it's scared of drowning and drowning statistics. Um, but through the water, we found that a lot of those kids are in occupational therapies, physical therapies, and most of the time that's in like a classroom setting where they're having to sit in a chair and they've had to do that for eight hours at school, and then they're doing it. So the venue is very different. It's a place they like to be anyway. And so they're more willing to do what they're asked because they're also hands-off um where they're having to make that choice and they're not being forced to do it, and they're being rewarded for what they're doing positively. Um, we do try to mainly work on positive reinforcement, but I can tell you walk on deck, you'll hear me yell. No, you're kidding a lot. But I'm not yelling. Half of the time, the kids' heads are underwater, so you know, you've got that. So you've got to be loud enough to have them hear you, you know, across a 25-yard pool with their head underwater. So yeah, it's loud on the deck and there's sensory and there's things going on. But a lot of this kids they need to get through that because of their love for water. So a lot of the things that they would run from or try and escape from because they are in a safe place or a quiet place and they can just put their head under the water and it's quiet and it's enveloping and it feels welcoming and warming, it's more like a hug.

SPEAKER_01 16:23

Interesting.

SPEAKER_00 16:24

So every kid is different, every single kid is different. So when there's lots of questions like how long does it take to progress or, you know, different things, a lot of it just depends on how much, you know, the parents are willing to put in the program. Like we said, we're here to meet you guys with everything, but with a lot of those kids, they've got so many other therapies going on. And so maybe like during the school year, they can come twice a week, but in the summer, they just, you know, they want to enjoy the water on their own and they don't need the structure. Or it's totally opposite. During the school year, they can't do it, but during the summer, they have the freedom to be able to do it. I found that a lot of the parents find the kids do a lot better with their homework after swimming because it's calming. It, they're their bit their brains are active and busy and going all over the time, and they have so much energy from being pent up at school all the time. So to be able to go and like swim it out and then eat and be tired and then do homework later helps a lot sometimes with focus. And the things that I never really would have thought of, they're just things that parents have told me that, hey, that's cool.

SPEAKER_01 17:29

I mean, better that that checks out. You know, I recently learned about the mammalian divers reflex, right? So when you are underwater, like your face is underwater, that that something about that situation, it downregulates your autonomic nervous system. So I could see where the water is comforting for the kids with autism because of you know, allowing a muffled, quiet, special space that they can dive into at their own will and it feels like a hug. But for maybe typical kids, they would also find it great because who doesn't want to uh unstress themselves? And if their home life or maybe at school, school's stressful, they can have this safe place to not only burn off this energy, but to downregulate and yeah, and then not only is it just for you know the outlet of the release, but we are compet a competitive swim team program.

SPEAKER_00 18:24

So we're a USA swimming program, which is USA swimming is the governing body of swimming in the United States. And they cover our insurance, or all of our kids are insured. Um, but we do competitive swim meets and we do swim meets. Um, we travel to Gulf Shores, we've traveled to Dothan, we've a lot of our meets we do against GPAC at UWF, we do the summer league meets. We don't force the kids to compete because a lot of kids don't want to be competitive. I don't understand that because I wouldn't understand working my butt off and then not getting up and diving in the pool and like wanting to race and beat my time, but that's where you start to see the correlation between especially like well with both both populations about putting in work and getting, you know, putting in work and seeing a reward for the work you put in. Um the kids are all put on an incentive program where they earn points, and that that equals a token economy. So tryouts are Wednesdays at 4 45. The kids get across the pool and they're on the team. They have an application they have to fill out, and we do have to provide documentation to USA swimming either for financial need or disability. Um and and then after all that paperwork, then they get a free T or a free cap and goggles, and then after seven days of practice, they get a bathing suit and a t-shirt. So then they have everything they need to be to be a competitive swim team, swimmer and be on a team. But then they're put on an incentive program where they earn points and that correlates to token economy. And so they it's like a running checkbook. So they're learning how to save and spend points in the value of money. And so they're getting that through positive sportsmanship conduct, academics, attendance, community service, and personal goals. And so personal goals is usually we correlate with like best times at a swim eat. So the first time they do a swim eat, they get a ribbon, an orange ribbon, it says, I'm a great swimmer, and it has their time on it. And then USA swimming has everything in a database. So we we keep track of their times and their improvements. So the next time they swim in a swim meet, if they improve their time, they get a blue ribbon that's a best time ribbon, and that equals a dollar in the incentive program. So then they start being, oh, I got better. And even if it's a hundredth of a second, you improve. So any improvement is improvement. And the way that it starts correlating in the pool, then it starts to correlate everywhere else. And the teachers will be like, Oh, what are you doing? Why, you know, you're starting to turn in your homework more. Or um, you know, we had a lot of uh kids that were in OT, a lot of OT. And they took a lot of the parents were like, we don't have to do OT anymore because I mean things you wouldn't even think about, like a kid holding a pencil and having the dexterity to use your hands. You wouldn't think about little things like that, but having to push the like push through the water and pay attention to the to the strokes and learning all the different strokes and like bilateral strokes and different things. And then and just one thing I didn't think about too was like fight or flight comp like a lot of times your heart starts beating fast, you start working hard, like that's bad. That's scary. You need to run, get away, get away. Like, no, you're exercising. That's a good thing. Like, we have such an obesity epidemic. Kids don't have recess, they don't go outside, they're on screens all the time. Like, they don't know it's okay to get your heart rate up and work. Um so it's really cool to see all of the aspects on how it helps. But with with the personal goals part, you know, getting best times at swim meet is great. But some of our special needs kids won't go to swim meets. And so there are other things that we have to work on, like behavior. So if we have a behavior issue, then we can work on. That with the parent at home and say, you know, maybe we could correlate buying a new Lego set at Target with your points, because buying a new pair of fins doesn't mean anything to that kid, you know. And some of the kids don't even understand the incentive program, but they sure understand, hey, I worked and I got a Lego set, you know, but it's long-term work. So, you know, the kids get a pair of goggles, those goggles are 20 bucks. So it's going to take you five or six months to earn that 20 bucks, depending on how much you put in. You know, the more you put in, the more points you can get, the more reward you get out. So they start to say that, hey, if I work, I can get more of what I want, which is great because all of these kids need to learn that in life.

SPEAKER_01 22:39

Yeah, every kid needs to learn that in life. And how exciting that the kid feels not just the connection between work and reward, but also the pride, the confidence from getting do putting in the work and reaping the reward, they're probably less likely to lose those goggles. I know you've got a few that have lost a few goggles, but they f look at their possessions differently. They look at their their teammates differently. And you know, I'm so glad that you were willing to share that story of Didi because it it is difficult to convey the feeling of the team. But when you're there on deck and you're looking over the pool and you see the kids that are there from financial aid and they're they're helping the kids that have cerebral palsy because you know the I I guess I should explain for listeners who don't know, the older kids become kind of like coaches to the other kids. And explaining, you know, the rules of the pool or the rules of a game that they're playing that day, teaching the little babies how to blow bubbles in the water and seeing it, it's not it's not a a Robin thing. It's it's the team, it's the kids coming to see.

SPEAKER_00 23:58

No, this this I you know, I'm just here to build up the community in a way that it needs to be. And um, you know, I graduated in '97 from Washington when I moved here out of here. I didn't really think I'd come back. Uh but I graduated from FSU and I was coaching swimming and I was a behavior specialist. My husband was working at FAM, and we had this idea, and we were like, well, we need to start it somewhere where there's poverty and somewhere where there's water. And so back here I was. And I mean, I I couldn't ever begin to explain the benefits that the I wouldn't have ever thought the benefits this team would have when I started it when I was so young. And um, I worked really hard to keep it going and to have it going, and I never realized like the staff would be the kids and the job opportunities that it would give. I mean, I I, you know, I wanted black kids going to college on scholarship, and it's so much more than that. And I've learned so much about poverty and special needs, and there's situations and it's nobody's fault, and there's you know, it the lines you know are all spaghetti all over the place. There is no, this person's here because of this. And there's no answer to every situation, but we're here to make every person that walks through the pool deck a better spot than they were. And you mean I have kids that'll come and they'll come and I was sitting at the Salvation Army the other day doing something because I had a few extra minutes, and I heard a kid or a kid heard my voice, and they were like, Oh, are you Coach Robin? They were just home visiting um from Virginia. They had moved a long, long time ago, and I didn't remember, or actually I remembered his name, and uh which is crazy. Now I'm getting old and I can remember the kid's name still, but um, and he said he moved away and he only had swam for like two or three months with us, and he had gotten to be a stronger swimmer and he had saved somebody's life in Virginia because he could swim. And you know, just things like and he swam with us for like two or three months, you know, and there's kids that like at the gas station, they're like, Oh, I didn't swim very long, but it was the best time of my life, and it's just things that you know I couldn't imagine. I swam and I know that like I had a very, very positive upbringing, and I was very fortunate. And the impact that swimming made on my life was huge. I can't imagine the impact that it is making on all of these kids' lives. I mean, I I can because they tell me all the time and it makes me really happy. But that's what we're here for, and that's why I was so happy for you to have us here because word of mouth for our program is the best. Um, we used to you know get swim lesson flyers that say endorsed by the Iskami County swim lesson and send them home with their book bags like in May before summer started and different things like that. But a lot of it it it's word of mouth, it's overcoming the fear, especially with the populations that we're talking with. The lower income population typically is scared of the water. Um, and the special needs population is it's usually fearful and of drowning. Um but the benefits that the water have from young ages all the way through adulthood, like our special needs kids, we take all we there's no age limit. But a lot of them, after you know, they're in their 30s or whatever, they can go to PSC and swim on their own and get what they want out of it. So they don't need to come swim with us. They can do it. The beauty of the water is they can do it anywhere. And we are surrounded by water here. So everybody needs to have it as a safety to be able to swim. Um, but we're more than just a swim team, and we're more than just putting kids in the water and going up and down the pool. We really are encompassed, like we do big things there. And um right now, no, she's not a product of me by any chance, but we have a girl named Emma, and she's in Turkey right now, and she's getting ready to do an international try, and she will be going to Paris in 2024, and she's ranked like I don't know, fifth in the world for the United States. And I mean, she swims with us. I mean, but that's try. I there's a whole lot of coaches in her background, and she was military. So, you know, I coached her three years ago for three years, and now she's been back, and I'm so happy to be part of her path. Um, but that's what it is. It's you know, a lot of sports and athletics, it's about like the coach or the parent and wanting and it's stressing the kids out. And athletics should be fun and uh it should be positive. And so again, we yell, but it's positive and we want to push and we really want the best for our kids.

SPEAKER_01 28:47

And there's no separation from academic performance and the sport itself, which I think makes it really unique. I played soccer competitively since I was itty-bitty. You know, I was varsity goalie as a freshman in high school, and there was always a fight between the academic aspects of school activities and at least soccer. I can't speak to football personally or, you know, I was only in volleyball for a short time. But there was that conflict, there was headbutting there. They didn't support one another. And what I think is unique is that uh SeaStars really comes together with academic incentive because it benefits the long-term success of that child. Right. And I think that's why Seastar, when people think of a swimming pool, they think of like chaos, children splashing and that squealing they do when they're in the water drives me bananas. I don't know why they do. But it's so loud and chaotic, and that's not what you have going on. And so that's why I'm so glad that you came today and talked about it. Can you real quickly tell um listeners what the financial qualifications are? Yeah. So we know what the the physical disability qualifications are are a little bit less defined, but if your child does have an IEP or qualifies to have an IEP at school, it probably will.

SPEAKER_00 30:11

Right. Yeah. Um like usually a 504 won't, but an IEP usually will. Um and there's some things that you just have to talk about it and figure out where's gonna, you know, where's gonna fit best because there are other swim teams out there, and that's why the beauty of our swim team is swimming is a great sport, but there are like if you don't qualify if it for us, there's other places to go, and I will help you in that venue too. Um, but there's a lot of different ways financially. Um it used to be free or reduced lunch, but everybody gets free or reduced lunch, so you have to qualify for it. You don't have to get the services, but you do have to show that you qualify for it. Um, Medicaid is one of the easiest ones. If you have a Medicaid card, you just can show us. We take a picture and we send it to USA swimming food stamps, temporary assistance to needy families, children's health insurance plans, home energy assistant programs, women in infant and children's programs, social security disability insurance, aid to families with dependent children, supplemental security income, or section eight public housing. And then some people who don't think that they would qualify and don't have any desire to be a part of any of those programs. We do have a few families that qualify because of federal tax return. And um I'm the chair for USA Swimming for for disability swimming. Um, and so I've tried to figure out different stats and the annual gross income for this year, if you want to uh qualify for 2023. Um if you have two people in your family, it's 33,000, three people it's 42,000, four people, it's fifty-one thousand, five people in your family, it's sixty thousand, six people in your family, it's sixty-eight thousand, seven people, seventy-seven thousand, eight people, eighty-six thousand, then over eight people in your family add eight grand to eighty-six. So um, you know, if you have a family of five and make less than sixty thousand dollars, you know, you definitely could qualify. And if you have three kids, I mean, they all can get it all in one pop. So um, and we do have kids that qualify for both. We have, you know, I have one family and they have uh a boy that swims a 3 30 group, a boy that swims a four o'clock group, and then a swimmer that swims from 5 to 615. Um so that is, you know, it is a commitment, but they're safe. All of our, all of our kids, all of our coaches, we have, you know, USA swimming safe sport, background checks, tons of stuff we have to go through through USA swimming. Um, but a lot of parents don't think they could just drop their kids off. I mean, especially the special needs kids. Like I never realized how much the parents would get out of the team just the half an hour of giving their kids to us and being able to sit next to another mother and just cry or talk or what do you do about this? Or I don't know what doctor to go to, or I'm having a hard time with this, or you know, and and that those are things that I never ever thought about because I just think about the kids. And and if you if you know me when I'm on deck, I'm there for your kids, I'm not there for you. So I love your children and I am here for you. I'll give you my phone number. It's 850-418-0645. Call me, text me anytime. But from five to seven, your kids are mine, and I don't really you become Coach Robin full-fledged.

SPEAKER_01 33:30

So, what's what website should people go to if they want to learn more about Seastars?

SPEAKER_00 33:35

The website is uh www.cstarzaquatics.org. It's S-E-A-S-T-A-R-S A-Q-U-A-T-I-C-S dot or G. Um, we do have an Instagram page and we have Facebook page. Facebook, that's probably more up-to-date and stuff. We do different things on there. Um Perfect.

SPEAKER_01 33:59

I think those are great resources. This has been so amazing. Thank you for all that you do, and thanks for coming here.

SPEAKER_00 34:06

Well, thanks so much for having me, and I really appreciate you know the school system being able to showcase different venues, not only in-house of what they're doing and all the amazing programs that the district does through this building, but also bringing people who really want the best out of the community. And I know you've had us some other programs that come there, but it really means a lot because that's what we're here for is for your children and have a safe, happy place for them to be better, better adults.

SPEAKER_01 34:37

Perfect. Voices United in Education is a production of Escambia County School District. Special thanks to Pine Forest High School for the recording studio facilities and hospitality.