Stew Leonard's Breaks Ground On New Swim School In Norwalk

 

NORWALK, CT — Over 30 years ago, Stew Leonard and his wife, Kim, lost their two year-old son in a tragic drowning accident.

Speaking from the construction site of his newest venture, a swim school for children, Leonard recalled how he and his wife found their son floating face down in a pool.

"We could hardly believe it happened," Leonard said. "It was a tragedy in our lives."

On Monday, Leonard and his team broke ground on the Stewie The Duck Swim School, which aims to teach young children, among other things, an important life-saving skill: how to properly float.

"If our son had known to do that," Leonard said, "he may be standing right here today."

The new swim school will be located at 55 Westport Avenue, across the street from Stew Leonard's flagship Norwalk store, in a strip mall that also contains a Walgreens and a Stew Leonard's Wines and Spirits shop.

"This is a dream for Kim and I right now, opening this swim school," Leonard said. "It's special to our heart right now."

Leonard and his wife were joined by a number of government and community leaders for the launch of the new swim school that will teach state-of-the-art, life-saving techniques and pool safety, according to Stew Leonard's.

Speaking from inside a pit that will soon be filled with water and opened as a pool for the swim school, Senate Majority Leader Bob Duff noted he and his wife made sure to get their sons swim lessons at an early age.

"My hat is off really to the Leonard family," Duff said, "for taking a terrible tragedy and turning it into something that will, and has, saved lives for so many children."

Mayor Harry Rilling noted how fortunate Norwalk was to have Stew Leonard's in its community and commended the Leonard family for taking "that tragedy and making it a powerful message [and] a powerful program to prevent other tragedies from happening to other families."

According to Leonard, all profits from the swim school will go toward offering free swim lessons for inner-city kids in need.

The school will charge $35 per lesson, and Leonard noted his team has worked hard to hire great instructors. Adding a bit of the creative ingenuity his stores are known for, he also alluded to a special "air-drying tunnel" in development intended to dry off kids after a lesson.

"I've sold meat and milk and eggs and wine and spirits and everything," Leonard said. "I've never sold a service really. This is the first time there's no product people can walk out of here with."

At the end of the event, Leonard marked the school's ground-breaking by having Duff and Rilling turn a large wheel that shot water out of a small pool surrounded by plastic ducks inside the pit.

The swim school is expected to open early this summer.

"We want to really help moms and dads right now that have young children, get them in here and teach them how to float," Leonard said. "That's our goal."

More information about the swim school and Stewie the Du