If you have ever met Edie Flood, then you know how passionate she is about the things she cares about: family, community, and the business she created, Wings Over Water, a school where children and adults learn to swim, with love of and respect for, the aquatic environment.
Edie opened Wings Over Water in 1993, after spending more than 35 years teaching and developing swim programs for other schools and organizations, both nationally and internationally. She was determined to create the kind of warm and inviting environment to enhance her originally conceived and developed swim program called Swimplicity. This new concept was brought about through a mentoring relationship with Bill Boomer who believed… “Change the relationship of human beings to water when the nervous system is developing (between birth and five years old), and there will be a dramatic shift in all areas of their aquatic development.”
In 1998, along with Milt Nelms, the Swimplicity Learn to Swim curriculum was launched, which uses… ”the learners basic relationship with water as the swimmers primary safety system and the foundation of all aquatic activities. Swimpllicity focuses on a series of specific, playfully-directed aquatic activities that uses the water’s natural forces to influence brain development, sensory awareness and integration, motor control, and learning as well as social development in children and adults.”
Along with the development of the Swimplicity curriculum, Edie had very definite ideas about the kind of environment that would best serve her students, and was instrumental in designing both Wings Over Water swim school locations in Brewster, New York and Fairfield, Connecticut. “The state of the art facility is a sensory delight; with warmth, color, and spirit, and …has won the United States Swim School Association Design Award.” The staff at both locations is highly trained and the ever present life guards are certified. The following accreditations and awards are listed on the very informative Wings Over Water website (www.wingsoverwater.com), and makes clear that this swim school takes its mission very seriously:
Member of the United States Swim School Association since 1994
Member of the Aquatic Baby Congress
17 Outstanding Teacher Awards from the United States Swim School Association
Edie Flood (owner) was inducted into the USSSA Hall of Fame 2002
Edie Flood was inducted into the New York Special Olympics Hall of Fame in 1993
Received Best of Association Award from USSSA
Received Outstanding Facility Design from USSSA
Received the Skill Card Award from the USSSA
Wings Over Water is open seven days a week and the Putnam County location is: 1511 Route 22 Lakeview Plaza, Brewster, New York. Appointments can be made and questions answered by calling 845 279 9525