On Thursday, Ogden City officials and Government Employees Health Association (GEHA) officials gathered at the Marshall N. White Community Center to announce the return of GEHA’s Learn to Swim Program. Last year, a $23,000 grant allowed for 300 kids to learn how to swim with equipment costs and everything  covered.

Ogden Mayor Ben Nadolski said swimming lessons is one of the most important services that municipal recreation entities can provide.

“One of the programs we provide here is aquatic lessons and safe swimming,” he said. “This is something that’s really important to local communities across the country. (Drowning) is one of the primary contributors to loss of young children and lives across the country, so it’s critically important that we teach kids how to be safe within a pool environment so that when they’re out and about in our communities around lakes, around rivers, the kids understand aquatic safety. The best way to do that is to do it in a controlled environment and in an environment where they’re surrounded people that care about them who are there to provide for them.”

He touted how GEHA’s contribution had helped 300 kids in 2025, and noted that the next round in 2026 will be even bigger.

“With the generosity of our friends, we’re able to now take the success that we’ve achieved over the first year and the 300 lives that we’ve been able to impact and more than double it to 625 kids in our community,” he said. “That is a step, not only in the right direction, but an enormous step toward making sure we’re reaching more kids, providing more safety, more instruction and more connection between families, kids, our community, our instructors, our staff and all of the volunteers that surround those families.”

GEHA Chief Innovation & Strategy Officer Alexis Rolloff said GEHA’s Learn to Swim Program has been implemented in 18 cities across the country and has made swim lessons extremely accessible to all children.

“That translates to supporting more than 7,000 students to receive no-cost swimming and aquatic safety lessons,” she said. “We do know that access can be a barrier to participation and healthy activities, so each child, as part of this program, receives the necessary equipment which is really essential and enables them to focus on, I would argue, what’s most important — making memories with their friends and the simple joy of learning a new skill.”

Nadolski said that the fact that the lessons are free and include free swimwear and towels is a game changer.

“Because they’re helping us out, families in need are not being additionally taxed or hit with a fee to participate in this program,” he said. “We all know that times have been hard with cost of living and inflation being so high. The first place that has an impact is at the dinner table. For families in our community and across the country, they’re struggling to put food on their tables, struggling to pay their utility bills, struggling to pay for transportation, housing costs, etcetera. Grants like this help us make sure that we keep our tax burden low on them as well.”

For more information and to fill out an application, visit https://www.ogdencity.gov/330/Marshall-White-Center.