There are 477 children in Pasco County on a waiting list for subsidized day care so their parents can work or go to school without worrying about their offspring.

More than 41,000 kids — nearly 55 percent of the students attending Pasco public schools — qualify for free or reduced-price meals because of their families’ incomes.

In Pasco, 8.5 percent of the babies born in 2017 were underweight at birth. That is an increase from 7.6 percent two decades earlier. Those children are more at risk of dying before their first birthday and could have a harder time learning to eat, gain weight and build their immune systems.

They are sobering statistics, particularly in a county with nearly 540,000 residents enjoying a booming economy with low unemployment. But it also is a community where nearly 90,000 households are struggling to pay for basic needs, according to the United Way. That number, too, is on the rise.

At least it’s not all grim. Infant mortality rates across Florida are down more than a third since then-Gov. Lawton Chiles formed Florida Healthy Start 18 years ago to invest in pre-natal and after-birth care.

Now, Jack Levine, the Tallahassee-based children and family services advocate, thinks it’s time for more investment. Last week, he challenged the 50 or so people at the Healthy Start Coalition of Pasco to do just that. Levine believes Pasco voters should consider a referendum to tax themselves for children’s services.

Such an investment, Levine said, “is not an amorphous-reasoning thing. It’s not a statistical thing. It’s a humanity thing.”

This isn’t a ground-breaking idea. The Pinellas Juvenile Welfare Board dates to 1946. Hillsborough County followed suit in 1990. And Alachua County voters just approved a Children Services Council last year. Currently, there are nine councils around the state with the authority to levy property taxes to aid children.

Pasco voters turned down a Children’s Services Council in 1990 — the same year Hillsborough voters approved their version. It lost in Pasco by 4 percentage points. Advocates tried again in March 1992, but faced a severe push-back from Republican activists. Seventy percent of the voters rejected the referendum.

One of the leading advocates then was Circuit Court Judge Lynn Tepper. She retired from her full-time job on the bench last year, but hasn’t retired from public life. Listening to Levine at the Land O’ Lakes Community Center, she raised her hand and volunteered to again champion the Children’s Services Council effort here.

The leading critic in 1992 was Mike Fasano, then a partisan pitbull who had yet to hold elected public office. Today, he is Pasco’s tax collector after 18 years in the state Legislature. Last year, he added a consumer advocate to his staff because of the number of needy people contacting the Tax Collector’s Office for assistance.

“There’s no question it should go before the voters,” Fasano said in an interview. “I think the voters should be educated with enough information as possible on how it will benefit Pasco County. That is key.”

He also noted that the Pasco of 2019 — with homelessness, poverty, stagnate wages and blue-collar workers living paycheck to paycheck — is a much larger and more diverse population than the retiree-heavy Pasco of 1992. The needs are greater now.

Levine urged the coalition members to consider a 2022 or 2024 referendum, though it likely could bump against the question of renewing the Penny for Pasco sales tax. That tax for schools, transportation, public safety, environmental preservation and economic development expires in 2024. Voters are expected to be asked in 2022 to consider extending it for 10 more years.

The date, though, isn’t as important as the mission: To expand help for children.

“What are we waiting for?” Levine asked.

Indeed. Babies born the year Pasco voters last considered the Children Services Council are now 27. Maybe they’d like to have a say.

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In an effort to prevent drowning, free spring and summer swimming lessons are being offered for the first time to Gulfport youth ages 3 to 12 at the Stetson University College of Law pool.

The program is named “Safety Around Water” and its five-day sessions are being sponsored by the school, the city of Gulfport, the Juvenile Welfare Board and the YMCA of Greater St. Petersburg.

“All across the country, the Y is the leading provider of swimming lessons,” said Tim Staley, chief operating officer for the local YMCA. “Our local focus in St. Petersburg and in Florida is to make sure that every young child knows how to swim and to keep safe around water.”

The program has been offered in the Tampa Bay area for seven years with a variety of sponsors, he said. “This year, for the first time in Gulfport, we have the opportunity to work with Stetson Law to do it on that campus.”

Florida leads the country in the number of annual drowning cases, said Heidi Blair, senior program director for the YMCA. “In the state, it is the leading cause of death in children under age four.”

Blair is in charge of training all of the swimming instructors and it’s her staff that will be delivering the lessons and guarding the pool.

Gulfport youth who complete the series of lessons will be given a certificate and a bracelet that shows their achievement in the program, said Blair.

“When I was a kid, I was a lifeguard,” said Vice Mayor Paul Ray. “Recently, I was watching a TV show and they were talking about how prevalent it is for kids to drown around pools and water in general.

“It just really bothered me.”

That’s when he reached out to the local YMCA and found out they were already in the process of organizing swimming lessons for free in the area.

Ray helped the effort by finding a local pool and garnering the support of the city.

“It worked out together, perfectly,” he said.

Classes will be 45 minutes in length beginning at 10 a.m. and 11 a.m. and will take place on Saturdays, except July 6. The dates for Session 1 are June 1, 8, 15, 22 and 29 while Session 2 is scheduled for July 13, 20, 27, August 3 and 10.

To register beginning May 1, go to the YMCA at 3200 1st Ave. N. in St. Petersburg, call 727-328-9622 or visit stpeteymca.org/programs/water-safety-program.

To view article by The Gabber visit: http://thegabber.com/free-swim-lessons-offered-to-gulfport-youth/