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Owner/Instructor Rockell Ridgway
on the right shown with
Southern California's Master
Infant Survival instructor
Linda Ross Miles
ROCKELL RIDGWAY
719.488.0179
Rockell Ridgway
could swim before she could walk. She started on a swim team at age 4 and continued through High School. Rockell swam in The Jr. Olympics in 1982 and ranked top 10 in the Nation. She and her team mates hold the medely relay record to this day in Southern California. Rockell trained under Linda Ross Miles in Southern California from 1992-2003. She came to Colorado in 2006 and furthered her swim career by teaching children the swim-float-swim and the infant survival method at a local swim school. Following this positive experience Rockell felt she could better serve the Colorado Springs community by opening her own swim school. The school was a success from it's inception, and she looks forward to serving the community for many years!
MELISSA FLACK
719.321.0671
Melissa Flack
Completed Infant Survival
Swim-Float-Swim training
with Linda Ross Miles
Melissa Flack was swimming before she was walking! She also participated in year-round competitive swim teams from age 5 through high school. She began lifeguarding at age 15 and began swim instructing at 16. Melissa still swims for recreation and exercise in the pool on a regular basis. Melissa has been with Little Fins from the day it opened. She has enjoyed watching Little Fins grow and become a major part of the Colorado Springs community.
REN STANTON
719.510.7051
Ren Stanton
Ren also started swimming before she could walk. Her father was a competitive swimmer and swimming was part of family life. She trained at Park Crest in Madison, Wisconsin completing Senior Lifesavings skills by age 15. She is also trained in swim-float-swim, and taught at a local swim school 2 years prior to joining Little Fins. Ren has taught students from 12 months through 60 years. Ren is also teaches figure skating in Colorado Springs. She enjoys teaching at all levels both in the water and on the ice!
KAREN COLLIER
719.213.1017
collierpk@yahoo.com
Karen Collier
is our Special Needs and Beginning Swim teacher. She is also a licensed sign language teacher. Karen is able to communicate with deaf children in the water and help them feel comfortable and safe.
She also teaches children with autism, downs syndrome, and children with severe fear of the water. Karen did not learn to swim herself until she was 22 years of age. She therefore, really understands adults and kids that have fear of the water. (it's never too late to learn.) Karen enjoys teaching the "baby splash" classes as well as beginning levels of swiming. Karen is a married mom of 4 sons; 2 married and 2 in high school. She is a proud Nana to 4 grandchildren. She is a certified doula and a volunteer for First Visitors. Karen is an enthusiastic, fun, swim teacher and is a definite asset to Little Fins Swim School.
CHRISTIANA CAVANAGH
719 337-6474
christiana.cavanagh@gmail.com
Christiana Cavanagh
was born and raised in Hawaii and surrounded by water most of her life! She absolutely LOVES the water! She started off teaching in 2006 doing a baby class and is now trained in swim-float-swim. She has been part of the Summer Swim Program at Hope Montessori Academy (Monument) for the past 3 years along with another Swim School here in the Springs. She enjoys meeting new students and looks forward to help improve your child's swimming! I look forward to meeting you!"
TANIA VO
714 743-8980
tania_v_83@hotmail.com
Tania Vo
(with her son Brodie)
fell in love with swimming at age 9 after joining a local swim club in Southern California and continued competitive swimming through her high school years. Her love for teaching children how to swim began during her first job as a swim instructor at age 15. She began an apprenticeship at Nova Swim School with Ginny Flahive Ferguson, the creator of the internationally recognized, award-winning "Smart Fish" curriculum…very similar to the infant survival, swim-float-swim method.
And in 2001, she then began to work for Novaquatics, owned by Dave Salo, head coach of the USA Olympic Swim Team in 2000. Tania also substituted at Lenny Krayzelberg's swim school, where the owner trained with Novaquatics and became an Olympic medalist. After working with well accomplished people in the competitive swimming world, Tania teaches with the same values: high standards with gentle-loving care…and from the swim-float-swim method to an efficient transition into sophisticated swim team material. Tania got married and moved here to Colorado Springs where her husband is stationed at Fort Carson. She is currently obtaining a Master’s Degree in Elementary Teaching and a Colorado Teaching Credential. On her free time she loves to swim, surf, enjoy the outdoors and be a loving mom. She loves it here in the Springs and plans to make it her home and enjoys bonding with her students. She believes this is a very rewarding career; to be able to give the students the life-long skills of swimming and water safety.
JORDAN COLLIER
719 439-3890
collierjman@yahoo.com
Jordan Collier
Jordan Collier was born in Indianapolis, Indiana and was raised on the lake in South Carolina where he waterskied, knee boarded, and was on the swim team growing up. He has been swimming since he could walk. He has 4 back belts in 4 different styles of Martial Arts: Mukashi Kindai Ryu, Bushido, Taekwondo, and Jiu Jitsu. He is also a licensed Martial Arts teacher and Gymnastics Teacher. Currently he is going to college to major in Biology and will eventually transfer to a Medical School where he will study pediatrics. Jordan works at New Life Church within the children’s ministry voluntarily where he performs every other week as a safari explorer in a show called Dave and Buster, which he is Buster and is the director of the supernatural and martial arts cast in The Crown production. He is a blessed uncle of two nieces and nephews.
KATHY FLACK
719 205-0938
flack149@juno.com
Kathy Flack
grew up in Ohio loving the waters of Lake Erie and smaller lakes. After graduating with a BA in Elem Ed, she and husband Dave moved to Colorado Springs. For seventeen years, she was a stay-home mom, raising four children and doing daycare, and anything that involved being with children. She then taught seventeen years at a private Christian school in Colorado Springsand is excited to begin a new career at Little Fins teaching life skills of water safety and swimming. She has an Elem. Ed. certificate with Colorado, and is certified in first aid and CPR. She enjoys visiting her daughter, son-in-law, and three grandchildren in Iowa, and spending time with three sons, daughter-in-law Melissa (also at Little Fins) and two grandsons all in Colorado. She enjoys the outdoors, especially hiking, biking, camping and baseball games with Dave and family.
Lea Holst, R N
swimaloha@gmail.com
719-522-3725
I was born on Long Island in New York and began my undefeated swimming career at the age of 5, swimming competitively for the Women's Swimming Association (WSA) in New York City. I was on the swim team for a year at Mount St. Vincent's College prior to entering St. Vincent's Nursing School where I received my RN degree. All my favorite childhood memories revolve around swimming, boating and playing the piano. I realize that I have spent most of my life surrounded by water on Long Island, NY, Fall River and Boston, MA and Hawai'i. I LOVE the water!
After graduating from St. Vincent's, I married and had four beautiful daughters in 5 and a half years. During that time I worked part time as an ICCU (intensive care coronary RN). Several years later, I studied in Concord, Mass at the Institute of Humanistic Psychology where I received my Master's degree. I spent several years in Cambridge, MA and Worchester, MA training health care professionals in Holistic Medicine. After moving to Hawai'i in 1982, I continued nursing in the field of Pediatrics and Hospice, ending my career as a Medical Case Manager.
I have raised 5 daughters, the youngest being my chosen daughter who came into my life as a foster daughter when she was 9 months old and I was 48. I also helped raise 3 other foster daughters, and after remarrying my husband, Jim, finally brought 3 sons into my life. Between us, we have 14 grandchildren. Over the years I taught all of my children and most of my grandchildren to swim when they were about 2-3 years old. Since I have always loved the water and I obviously also love children, the Infant Aquatic Survival program is a natural fit for me.
Having spent many years as an RN, I am only too aware of all the tragedies that can take place in and around the water. If I can keep even one child from becoming a statistic, then all my training will be well worth my time and effort. Swimming is the only sport I know of that once learned can actually save a life -- and that life could be the life of YOUR child!!
I am currently a member of the US Swim Schools Association and am certified in Adult, Child and Infant CPR and first aid.
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