Big Blue Swim School makes a splash of a difference

Kids between the ages of three months and 12-years-old swam in 90-degree water. sometimes with a parent by their side or a swim instructor showing them fundamental swimming techniques.

Many of these kids are learning how to swim for the first time, and it’s all made possible with Big Blue Swim School, a new swim school that opened at the end of March.

The in-ground swimming pool is located somewhere that could be quite unexpected: a strip mall on State Road right behind Caliente Mexican Grill and across the street from the Dartmouth Mall.

Co-owners Melissa Schorr and her husband Gary Cohen have been working on opening the school in what was a lengthy process made longer by the February blizzard.

“It takes a while to build these. We have such a great construction team that really now knows how to do it,” Schorr said.

She noted that people often think it’s “a crazy concept.” “You’re building a swimming pool in a strip mall,” she said.

To do so, Big Blue Swim had to get the rights to dig a hole inside the mall, but Schorr said that the project works out well and is in a convenient location.

Located across from the Dartmouth Mall, families could get their groceries on the way home or grab a snack after lessons, Schorr noted.

The Big Blue Swim School franchise has around 50 locations nationwide, including two other locations in Massachusetts.

“We’ve really just looked around for what areas, what communities, could really use this kind of swim school,” Schorr said.

Schorr, who lives in the South Shore area, said that she and her husband thought Dartmouth would be a good location for a Big Blue Swim School because Dartmouth is a coastal town.

“Especially growing up around the water and near the beach, we just feel like it’s super important for Massachusetts parents to have this option for their kids,” she said.

Samantha Thompson, who is a Dartmouth resident and the manager of the location, called the swim school a “great concept” and something that Dartmouth and surrounding area was “lacking.”

“I really feel like it’s a great addition to our town,” she said.

The pool was designed specifically with kids in mind.

Only about three to four feet deep, the pool is shallow and also kept at 90 degrees, which Thompson called “really crucial.”

“For the kids this is very warm for them to just easily get into,” she said.

The majority of classes are also scheduled on weekdays in the afternoon from 3 p.m. to 8 p.m. so that they don’t conflict with school hours, though they are also open Tuesday mornings from 9 a.m. to 12 p.m. for lessons geared toward stay at home moms or kids who are homeschooled and on weekends from 8 a.m. to 4 p.m.

Lessons, which are kept small, are first broken down by age and then by different skill levels: baby, bright, bold and big.

Schorr said that there’s more to Big Blue Swim School than just teaching kids how to swim; it’s also about empowerment.

“Our motto is ‘life’s big moments happen,’ and it’s all about empowering kids, giving them that life skill,” she said.

She added, “They don’t just learn to swim. They also learn the feeling of ‘I conquered my fear, I learned a new skill,’ and how important that is overall for self-confidence and teaching kids to master something new.”

Schorr said that talking about sad stories isn’t something people like to do, but noted that drowning is the number one cause of death of kids four-years-old and younger.

“Every summer you do hear really sad stories around the area, so I guess our hope is, if we can just do any little bit to prevent those stories, that would make our hearts really happy,” Schorr said.