ALYSON MILNER

Like many ISR instructors, my ISR career was inspired by my now 6 year old daughter.  I grew up around water with my parents prioritizing swimming lessons and safety from a very young age. When my husband and I were blessed with a healthy baby girl in 2016, our search for an ISR instructor began. Unfortunately, there were not any instructors nearby so we turned to a more traditional lesson approach but were denied multiple times because our daughter was not 3 years old (the only prerequisite for lessons).  She was absolutely fearless in (and out of) the water and the thought of her finding the water alone without any skills terrified me. Knowing the statistics of drowning and being denied lessons was just the kickstart I needed to apply to be an instructor myself! 

My family (including our dog) temporarily moved to Pearland, TX in January of 2020 for ISR instructor training. Our daughter completed her first 6 week session during my training and we couldn’t have been more proud.  I finished instructor training eager to return to Colorado and offer other Northern Colorado families the lessons I so desperately had been seeking the previous 2 years.  As we all know, COVID had other plans. By July 2020, I was able to return to the pool and my love for my work has continued to grow from there.  We welcomed a baby boy in October of 2020 whom I taught to float at 9 months.  Teaching my own child to self-rescue has been one of my greatest accomplishments and I am so grateful to be able to offer the same skills to other little ones in our community. Together with CAST, I look forward to providing water safety education and ISR lessons in Northern Colorado!