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Frances Elizabeth "Skip" Baker | ||
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Aquatics ∙ Bridgewater |
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Frances Elizabeth "Skip" Baker | ||
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Aquatics ∙ Bridgewater |
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Her more than 46 years as an aquatics instructor made
Frances Elizabeth (Skip) Baker one of
the most veteran swimming and water safety experts in the
United States. Skip got her start in swimming in 1934 at the age of
16 when she received a gift membership to the Beaver Valley YMCA
from the Beaver Methodist Church. She learned to swim at the YMCA
under the tutelage of Mrs Adelaide Weimer.
In 1937 Skip received her Red Cross Senior Life Saving Certificate
and was hired as a lifeguard by L.H. McCullough, then secretary of
the Beaver Valley YMCA. It is appropriate that Skip should be prominent in both
swimming instruction and water safety. She stresses that fact that
human beings tend to get careless around water through familiarity
and also are inclined to overestimate their own capacity in the
water. Therefore she devoted herself to a lifelong crusade of making swimming a safe and enjoyable sport. Skip was
active as an instructor for the Red Cross and YMCA and taught
students at Geneva College and at the