High School Swim Team Receives Rip Current Prevention Training

As a swim coach, I have always believed that teaching young people to swim is about much more than learning the four competitive strokes. Swimming is a sport, but it is also a life skill.

That is one reason I was especially pleased recently when the Crystal River High School Swim & Dive Team participated in rip current and water safety training with Citrus County Fire Rescue Battalion Chief Thomas Fletcher.

The training was conducted in cooperation with Citrus County Parks & Recreation and the Bicentennial Park Pool. It gave our student-athletes an opportunity to learn about a danger they may encounter outside the controlled environment of a swimming pool.

Rip currents are powerful channels of water that flow away from the shoreline through the surf zone.

For competitive swimmers, the pool is a familiar and controlled environment. We have lane lines, walls, starting blocks, lifeguards and coaches. Open water is different.

The students were taught how rip currents form, how to recognize warning signs and, most importantly, what to do if they or someone else becomes caught in one.

Citrus County Fire Rescue Chief Craig Stevens explained that one of the most important messages was also one of the simplest.

“Rip currents do not pull a swimmer underwater, they carry a swimmer away from shore,” Stevens said.

That distinction is important because panic can quickly make a dangerous situation worse.

A swimmer caught in a rip current may realize they are making little or no progress toward shore or may actually feel themselves being carried away from the beach. The instinctive reaction is often to swim directly back toward shore. But fighting the current can quickly lead to exhaustion, even for a very experienced swimmer.

The students were taught to remain calm and, when able, swim parallel to the shoreline until they are out of the current. Once clear, they can use the waves to help return to shore.

If they are too tired to swim, the lesson is equally important: stop fighting the current, float and signal for help.

The training also addressed one of the most dangerous situations of all: trying to rescue someone else.

If you see someone in trouble in a rip current, your first instinct may be to jump in and help. But entering the water without proper training or equipment can turn one person in trouble into two.

That is why this training is important for more than just competitive swimmers.

I also want to recognize the community partners who helped make this opportunity possible.

Citrus County Parks & Recreation Aquatics Supervisor Maci Kepler helped coordinate the training between Citrus County Fire Rescue and the Crystal River High School Swim & Dive Team. Her efforts helped bring together the people and resources needed to provide this valuable training to our students.

I also want to recognize County Commissioner Holly Davis for her assistance in identifying and coordinating the grant opportunity that provided 100% of the funding for approximately $13,000 in Slipstream equipment needed to conduct this important public education and water safety training.

That is a tremendous example of what can happen when community partners recognize a need, identify resources and work together to address it.

The equipment is an investment not only in this particular training, but in the ability of Citrus County Fire Rescue to continue providing water safety education to our community.

Chief Fletcher and Citrus County Fire Rescue deserve tremendous credit for being willing to share their expertise with our young people and for making public education part of their mission.

Chief Stevens told me, “Anytime we can share knowledge with our citizens that may help them protect themselves or someone else, it is time well spent.”

Our schools cannot and should not try to teach everything by themselves. We have firefighters, healthcare professionals, law enforcement officers, businesses, colleges, nonprofit organizations and countless community members who have knowledge and experience that can complement what students learn in the classroom.

Sometimes the most important lessons are the ones that will never appear on a test.

For our Crystal River swimmers, there were no stopwatches, race results or medals involved in this particular lesson.

Instead, they learned what to do when the water doesn’t behave the way they expect it to.

Hopefully, none of these young athletes will ever need to use what they learned from Chief Fletcher.

But if they do, knowing how to recognize a rip current, remaining calm and knowing how to respond could make all the difference.

After all these years around swimming, I still believe one of the greatest things we can teach a young person is to respect the water.

And sometimes, the best way to teach that lesson is to bring the right people together, provide them with the right tools and let them share what they know.

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A New School Year Begins with a First Library

There are few things more rewarding than watching a young child discover the magic of a book.

This past week, the Citrus County Education Foundation held its first “First Library” reading event of the 2026-27 school year. It is the first of six opportunities this year to bring community members into our classrooms to read with some of our youngest students.

Community members from across Citrus County participate in these special events. Civic organizations, community leaders, library staff, first responders, educators and others take time to walk into a classroom, sit down with students and share a story.

And then something especially important happens.

Each student gets to take that book home.

One of the special opportunities I have through my involvement with the Citrus County Education Foundation is being able to participate as one of those readers. This time, I had the opportunity to read with Ms. Cayley Zeris’ Pre-K class at Citrus Springs Elementary.

The book we shared was Biscuit Goes to School, a sweet beginner reader written by Alyssa Satin Capucilli and illustrated by Pat Schories. There is something pretty special about sitting in a classroom with young students, reading a story, answering their questions and watching their faces as the story unfolds.

But the real magic begins when they take that book home.

The First Library initiative has roots going back decades. It originally began through the generosity and vision behind Dolly Parton’s Imagination Library and, over the years, evolved into the Citrus County Education Foundation’s own First Library initiative.

Today, it continues to make a meaningful difference in the lives of Citrus County children.

The program focuses on Pre-K and kindergarten classrooms in our public schools. The goal is simple but important: to help make sure every child has an opportunity to develop a love of reading and has books of their own at home.

The need is real.

Research has shown a significant difference in the amount of one-on-one reading children experience before entering first grade. Children from middle-income homes may enter first grade having experienced more than 1,000 hours of one-on-one reading, while children from economically challenged families may have experienced fewer than 100.

That is an enormous gap before a child has even started elementary school. We cannot control every circumstance into which a child is born, but we can work together to help close that gap. That is what programs like First Library are about.

When students receive a book of their own to keep and share with their families, it gives children and parents another opportunity to read together at home. It creates another learning experience and can help establish a positive family tradition around books.

CCEF shares research highlighted by the Annie E. Casey Foundation that demonstrates the importance of reading proficiency by third grade. Students reading at or above grade level by third grade are significantly more likely to continue successfully through school, graduate and eventually enter the workforce.

A book may seem like a small thing. For a child, it can be the beginning of something much bigger.

Since October 2013, the Citrus County Education Foundation has partnered with Citrus County Schools to bring First Library into our classrooms. What began with Pre-K classrooms has grown to include kindergarten, reaching children during some of the most important early years of their educational journey.

I believe this is a great example of what can happen when a community decides that education belongs to all of us.

Our teachers cannot do it alone. Our schools cannot do it alone. Parents cannot do it alone.

But when schools, families, community organizations, businesses, foundations and volunteers work together, we can create opportunities that extend far beyond what any one organization could accomplish by itself.

First Library is just one example.

The Citrus County Education Foundation strategically partners with Citrus County Schools on numerous initiatives designed to support students, teachers and lifelong learning. These partnerships provide opportunities and resources that strengthen the educational journey of our children.

And First Library would not be possible without the generous support of its community partners: Duke Energy, Suncoast Credit Union, Citrus Libraries, Black Diamond Foundation Inc., Citrus County Chamber of Commerce, Rotary Club of Inverness, Altrusa International Citrus County, Dollar General Literacy Foundation and In Loving Memory of Deborah Kamlot-Wright.

As a school board member, I am especially grateful for the people who give their time to walk into a classroom and read a book to a child, and for the community partners who help make those moments possible.

Sometimes we look for complicated solutions to complicated challenges.

Sometimes the answer begins with something remarkably simple:

A teacher. A child. A community volunteer. And a book.

This past week, Citrus County children began building their own first library.

Our hope is that those books will not simply sit on a shelf. We hope they will be opened, read, reread and shared with parents, grandparents and siblings.

Most of all, we hope they become the beginning of a lifelong love of reading.

Because when we give a child a book, we are giving them much more than a story.

We are giving them a door to another world, a chance to imagine, an opportunity to learn and perhaps the first chapter of a lifetime of possibilities.

To learn more about the Citrus County Education Foundation and its many programs supporting Citrus County students and schools, visit www.citruseducation.org.

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Welcome Back, Citrus County Students! 

Welcome to the 2026–2027 school year in the Citrus County School District!

We hope you had a wonderful, positive, and refreshing summer. Now, a new school year begins, and opportunity awaits each and every one of our students. This is a year to learn, grow, discover new possibilities, build relationships, and pursue your goals.

We are incredibly grateful to all of our teachers, educators, staff, administrators, school leaders, custodians, maintenance and facility teams, transportation teams, and everyone who has worked throughout the summer, especially these last few weeks and days, preparing our schools and classrooms for the return of our students. Your dedication and hard work make a difference in the lives of our students every single day.

Thank you as well to our families, mentors, volunteers, and community members who continue to support and encourage our students. It truly takes all of us working together to help our young people succeed.

We are excited about the year ahead and all that is possible for our students and our schools. Let’s make it a great one!

Welcome back, Citrus County! We are glad you are here.

God bless you, and have a wonderful 2026–2027 school year

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