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"A swim instructor in Grass Valley helped make one little girl's dream of being a successful swimmer a whole lot easier.Stephanie Hernandez, 10, loves to be a student at Lyman Gilmore School in Grass Valley, dances ballet and was born with Down Syndrome. However, this disability has not stopped Hernandez from working hard to excel as a swimmer.Hernandez's parents, Genaro and Herminia, began taking their daughter to a pool when she was not even 3 years old, as part of the Nevada County Special Education Program.Moving in the water helped to develop muscle strength, but it took a while for Hernandez to learn how to hold her breath under water.Eight year later, Hernandez still enjoys swimming, especially competing against her brother, Giovanni.Hernandez became a member of the Grass Valley Orcas Swim Team in 2012, but was having trouble staying in her lane. She would bump into the lane lines or other swimmers because she was disoriented in the pool.Ina Elrod, Hernandez's swim teacher and a member of the Penn Valley Hi-Grader Lions Club, realized that Hernandez needed prescription goggles.Elrod found Douglas Novelley, owner of High Sierra Divers in Auburn. Novelley said that the highest prescription to put into regular goggles was 9, but Heranandez's prescription was 16.Everyone agreed something was better than nothing. When the goggles came in, however, they were too big for the young swimmer.The only other option was to purchase a mask, which allowed for the correct prescription to be inserted.Elrod allowed Hernandez to try on every mask in his shop in order to find the one that provided a good seal.The\u00A0Penn Valley Hi-Grader Lions Club paid for Hernandez's mask.Hernandez is now able to see underwater and succeed in the sport she loves.\u00A0"^^<http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#string>
<http://www.kcra.com/article/grass-valley-swimmer-receives-underwater-sight/6402671>