Germantown, MD
In just eight weeks, Samantha Mollica went from turtle to shark. For the uninitiated, that translates as the Diamond Elementary School second-grader progressed quickly through the levels at the British Swim School (BSS) at LA Fitness on Quince Orchard Road.
Bonnie Alcid’s Gaithersburg-based private swim school is the largest U.S. franchise of the company that Rita Goldberg founded 34 years ago in the basement of a Victorian house in Manchester, England.
Alcid, who has two young children and lives in Gaithersburg, left behind 15 years of 60-hour work weeks downtown
“to take a chance on my lifelong love, swimming.” She started out as a BSS swim instructor in 2009, and signed her first franchise agreement in 2010 and a second in 2013. In January, she became co-owner of a third franchise in Northern Virginia.
BSS teaches more than 1,200 swim lessons a month in Montgomery County, Alcid said, for babies as young as 3 months old up to adult. The school’s “methods are different from other schools in that they are based on teaching beginners in all age groups that the ability to float on their back is the most important water survival skill of all,” she said. “This enables all swimmers to rest, breathe and call for help, thus alleviating the ‘silent’ danger of floating face down.”
Alcid continues to get into the pool. “That is still my passion: teaching babies, toddlers, kids and adults how to
save their own lives in the water,” she said.
Samantha’s mom, Quince Orchard Park resident Melanie Mollica, was pleased with her daughter’s experience at BSS. Although originally signed up for a Turtle One class, the school evaluated Samantha as a Turtle Two, “a level up,” Mollica said. “That made her feel good about herself.” Mollica was impressed with the small group instruction in once-a-week, half-hour sessions. “I think the coach’s encouragement and the small class size really helped,” she
said. Mollica feels that “Samantha totally lucked out. Her coach, Steve, was amazing, and Samantha learned and excelled.” The children practiced skills related to freestyle, breaststroke and backstroke, and best of all, Mollica said, “Samantha always had a smile on her face when I took her to her lessons. She even had a smile on her face when she would lift her head out of the water while she was swimming.” At the eighth lesson, Samantha moved up to Shark One. “When you move up a level, the kids get a ribbon and a different colored swim cap,” Mollica said. Mollica is glad she took advantage of a Certifikid deal for the lessons. Toward the end of the eight weeks, she remembers her daughter saying, “All I want to do is swim laps.” And, mom said, “She did it. I’m really proud of her.” Now Samantha is on the Diamond Farms Stingrays swim team.
Other QOP kids have met with success at BSS, too. Heather Kafetz’s daughter, Sophie, was at BSS from age 5 to 7, off and on. After taking lessons elsewhere and learning very little, Kafetz said, they switched to BSS where “we had a wonderful experience, and she learned a tremendous amount.” She remembers that Sophie picked up skills quickly, and said that now, at age 8, “Sophie is a great swimmer, and easily passes all the tests to swim in deep water at the various pools we go to.”
Liz Pilloff’s daughters, Alyson, 9, and Kayla, 8, took BSS swim lessons at LA Fitness at Copley Place through April. “The kids learned the components of swimming strokes, arms, legs, breathing. They also worked on endurance,”
Pilloff said. “I liked the small class size and felt they got more attention that way. The instructors were great; they really made it fun for the kids to learn.”
At BSS, Alcid said, “Water safety and drowning prevention is of the utmost importance.” And these young QOP swimmers learned their lessons well.
This article appeared in The Town Courier, June 19, 2015
http://towncourier.com/2015/G3/pdf/TCGThree0615Web.pdf
Call (301) 963-3500 to enroll, or find a class online here.
