About Us
Tami Kellar, Owner
Tami Kellar is the owner of JUMP Infant Aquatics, LLC. From a very young age, Tami and her family enjoyed the water. In 5th grade, Tami started competitive swimming and went on to swim club, high school and college. As most swimmers do, Tami became a lifeguard and swim instructor at the age of 15. In 2005 Tami started working for the YMCA in Albany, Oregon as the Aquatic Director and Swim Coach of the Tiger Sharks Swim Team. Even when Tami moved on to other roles in the YMCA, Tami kept aquatics close to her heart.
Tami holds a bachelors degree in social and behavioral science from Linfield College, has 30+ years of aquatics experience and holds numerous certifications. In early 2021 Tami got certified as a Survival Swim Instructor. Tami has also been trained as a YMCA and Red Cross Swim Instructor. Tami holds Lifeguarding (LG), Lifeguard Instructor (LGI), Lifeguard Instructor Trainer (LGIT), ASCA Level 2 Swim Coach, CPR, AED, First Aid, Safety Training for Swim Coaches, YMCA Competitive Swimming & Diving certifications and is a YMCA Stroke Turn Judge as well as a Certified Pool Operator (CPO).
Our Story
In 2018 I moved to Weatherford, Oklahoma to start my new position as CEO of the Great Plains Family YMCA. In my first summer as a new CEO, two children drowned in backyard pools in the small town of only 12,000 residents. I WAS DEVISTATED. I had so many years of aquatics experience, had taught 1000's of swimming lessons and yet I had arrived in town too late to prevent these terrible tragedies. It was at that time I decided that the YMCA needed to make more of an effort to prevent childhood drownings. In the coming years, I hired and trained multiple individuals who all helped increase awareness of drowning and prevention strategies, they also helped to train our lifeguard staff and talk about layers of protection. However, I felt a personal calling to be more hands on and I began teaching swimming lessons in addition to my CEO position. Since being hands on, my efforts have intensified and I have become more focused on preventing drownings. For this reason, I have started my business in Yukon, Oklahoma in addition to teaching for the YMCA in Weatherford.
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Sometimes, perhaps later in life, you begin to realize that you must actively pursue what you were called to do. I believe educating parents, training lifeguards and teaching swimming lessons to prevent drownings, is what I was put on earth to do, it is my life's mission.
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I want everyone to feel safe and have the skills to JUMP into the water.