International Water Safety Day

National Association of State Boards of Education Supports IWSD!

IWSD News — Mon, 24 Sep 2012 18:10:24 +0000

We are proud to announce that…

The National Association of State Boards of Education (NASBE) supports May 15 as International Water Safety Day (IWSD). Encouraging state and local education agencies to help protect children from this preventable injury by encouraging schools to include water safety instruction in their health education curricula every May 15th.

NASBE states that it is committed to improving the health and well-being of America’s children and youth. For more than 20 years our Center for Safe and Healthy Schools has partnered with the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), state and local education agencies, non-governmental organizations and community leaders to address important issues in student health and safety through policy development and implementation.

The IWSD initiative was created to spread global awareness of the ongoing drowning pandemic and to educate children and youth on becoming safer in and around water. The measure, introduced in the House as H.Res. 658, encourages elementary and secondary schools across the country to provide students with water safety education annually on May 15.

How Can You Help?

Getting involved is easy! Print a copy of this letter and ask a local school if you can deliver a speech about drowning awareness and water safety on Wednesday, May 15,2013.

We are embarking on a two step awareness base plan toward increasing support.

Step One – International Water Safety Day

For International Water Safety Day we are calling on everyone from aquatic professionals, competitive swimmers, coaches, master swimmers, scuba divers, water polo players, recreational swimmers, boaters and everyone in between to reach out to their communities on this day by either holding a water safety event or giving a water safety classroom lesson. The May 15, 2012 date falls on a week day so that individuals can easily go to a local school to help deliver this message. We do realize that many of you already do this, and we thank you. Our hope is that everyone participating on the same day will amplify our voice.

Step Two – Health Class Curriculum

Step two of the plan will be using this awareness to get water safety lessons mandated into grade school health classes. This is not physical education class, not a swim lesson, and not necessarily taught at a pool. This is a health lesson, a safety lesson, a life lesson taught in the classroom.

From this awareness phase base, we will begin our journey to expand swim lessons into grade schools around the world.

Thank you all for your continued support in our fight to save lives!

In case you missed it: Drowning No. 1 cause of death for children 1-4

Jayson — Fri, 20 Jul 2012 16:28:37 +0000

From ShreveportTimes.com, By Loresha J. Wilson:

Eighty-eight Louisina children died as a result of unintentional drownings from 2007-2009, the most recent statistics available from the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) show. / Jim Hudelson/The Times

Angel Smith was the younger twin, born three minutes after big sister Aubrie. The girls were jolly, always laughing and playing.

“Just typical 3-year-olds doing what children do — and they loved each other,” said Pam Castine, the girls’ grandmother.

That image of Angel and Aubrie was shattered June 24 when Castine discovered her granddaughters floating in a neighbor’s pool near a south Bossier City playground.

The girls, who were with their mother and a friend, had wandered away and somehow slipped into a backyard, which was adjacent to the play area. Their mother, who was searching for her daughters, called Castine, who minutes later found the girls in the half-filled pool’s stagnant, green water.

Angel was dead. Aubrie was clinging to life — she remains in critical condition at Willis-Knighton South Medical Center. “Now we have one in heaven, and we are fighting for the other to stay with us,” a tearful Castine said Friday.

Angel and Aubrie are among four local children involved in a spate of recent drownings and near-drownings in the Shreveport-Bossier City area.

Elizabeth Bomar, 13 months, drowned June 20 in a backyard pool at her family’s north Bossier City home. On June 2, Shelby Patrick, 9, was found in the deep end of a Shreveport country club pool. She is in a Dallas rehabilitation facility.

Eighty-eight Louisiana children died as a result of unintentional drownings from 2007-09, the most recent statistics available from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention show.

Statewide, 267 Louisiana residents — children and adults — have drowned over the same time period. As a result, Louisiana ranked No. 4 nationwide in unintentional drownings in 2009, according to the CDC data.

In the aftermath of those deaths and nearly two years after the loss of six teens who drowned in Red River, the community appears still to be struggling to address issues related to unintentional drownings.

Free swim lessons offered in Shreveport are full, and no more are scheduled although more than 100 children are on waiting lists. Bossier City doesn’t plan to offer free swim lessons. While spokesmen for each city said water safety education programs are offered at city-owned pools, neither indicated if a broader community awareness campaign was planned.

Unlike school districts in Hawaii, Wisconsin, Ohio and other states, Caddo and Bossier schools do not offer swim lessons to students. Louisiana Department of Child and Family Services spokesman Trey Williams said the agency plans a joint news release with the Louisiana Department of Health and Hospitals about drowning awareness, but Williams didn’t say if public education efforts would go beyond that. DCFS investigated 10 child drownings — mostly involving pools or bathtubs — in 2011, finding abuse or neglect in four of those cases. So far this year, the agency is reviewing four child drownings. Those investigations are not complete. As well, it’s not apparent if private groups or organizations have plans to address water safety or drowning.

Those facts dismay advocates who say keeping children safe isn’t solely the duty of parents — the community also should share the obligation.

“This isn’t simply a city or school thing, but a community responsibility,” said state Rep. Roy Burrell, D-Shreveport, who led an effort in 2010 to determine who would be responsible for posting warning signs at the site where six teens drowned. “These are all of our children.”

Dr. Martha Whyte, DHH regional medical director, says awareness is key. Although water can be fun, people must also remain cognisant of its dangers, Whyte says.

“We’re all wary of people we don’t know because stranger danger is so ingrained in us, however many of us don’t give the same amount of precautions when it comes to a pool or water safety,” Whyte said.

Bright spots

Since 2011, more than a 1,000 children have received free swim lessons through a Shreveport program — Project Swim — funded by the Community Foundation, according to the group’s website. The 450 free swim lesson slots available this year were filled within the first 24 hours when registration opened.

However, Shreveport has identified a funding source that would meet program needs for this year and next. Once the funding is obtained, children on the waiting list would be offered lessons, says Shreveport spokesman Rod Richardson, who didn’t identify the source or an anticipated timeline in an email response to The Times.

Water safety is emphasized — with demonstrations and life jacket giveaways — at the start of every pool season with open houses at each of Shreveport’s five pools, Richardson says.

Bossier City also conducts awareness programs at its public pools, but the Parks & Recreation Department budget can’t accommodate free swim lessons, spokesman Mark Natale says.

Additionally, Shreveport, along with other sponsors such as the Red River Waterway Commission, will participate in water safety education efforts and offering free life jackets to residents attending this week’s Fourth of July celebration.

Victor Mainiero, director of communications and marketing for Caddo schools, said the district would consider offering swim lessons if proper facilities and financing could be secured.

“We’re open to any partnerships that would enhance what we can offer students, and if the opportunity presented itself, we’d be open to discussing it,” Mainiero said. Education needed Nadina Riggsbee, founder of Drowning Prevention Foundation in Benecia, Calif., says community groups, government agencies and others should pool resources to ensure children get swim lessons. Furthermore, education about drowning and water dangers should happen year-round. Children, even those as young as 6 months, should be taught survival skills, such as flipping themselves on their backs if they fall into a pool or other body of water, Riggsbee says. “Kids are like little Houdinis, who need to be protected from themselves,” said Riggsbee, whose 2-year-old daughter, Samira, drowned in 1978 while in the care of a baby sitter. Riggsbee’s son, JJ, now 35, nearly drowned alongside his sister and suffered severe disabilities.

Efforts like those Riggsbee describes could have made all the difference for children like Bryce Stewart. The 7-year-old, who loved football and fishing, drowned along with his grandfather Edward Stewart, 61, on Mother’s Day 2009. In the years since her father and son died, Christy Stewart has worked to regain her life — she started the My Paw-Paw and Me Foundation, which emphasizes child water safety. She also attended counseling and, despite a fear of water, eventually learned to swim through programs at Christus Schumpert. But after viewing media coverage of recent drownings, Stewart said many emotions have come to the surface, and she has started to see a grief counselor again.

“You never want anyone to have to go through what you went through and to see these children dying one after another has been really hard to see,” said Stewart, who moved from Dallas to Shreveport about a year ago. “This shows we still have more work to do and a long way to go.”

Water safety tips

For parents

Enroll your child in swim lessons.
Flotation devices and inflatable toys are not a replacement for the ability to swim.
Swim lessons do not replace supervision of children while in a pool, lake or other water body, or taking other water safety precautions. About 25 percent of all young drowning victims have taken swimming lessons.
All nonswimmers should always wear approved personal flotation devices, such as a life jacket, when they are near water.
Know how to swim yourself and ensure anyone taking care of your child knows how to swim. Also learn how to perform cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR).
Keep a constant eye on young children playing in or near any body of water, wading pool, public pool, bathtub or lake. At large gatherings, designate an adult to watch the pool and children in the pool.
Never leave a child alone near water, such as a pool or bathtub, to answer the phone, the doorbell, go to the bathroom, attend to another child or do household chores, even for a few seconds.

For pool owners

Fence your pool on all four sides with a barrier that is at least 5 feet high.
Move lawn chairs, tables and other potential climbing aids away from the fence to help keep children out.
Any gate or door leading to the pool area should be self-closing and self-latching, opening outward, with the latch placed on the pool side out of reach.
Install panic alarms on all house doors and windows leading to the pool area, automatic sliding door closers and automatic safety covers over the pool.
Install a water-level alarm. This device will alert pool owners if a person or object, even as light as an empty milk jug, enters the pool.
Keep reaching and throwing aids, such as poles and life preservers, on both sides of the pool.

Sources: Louisiana Department of Health and Hospitals and the Drowning Prevention Foundation

Drowning, the Silent Epidemic

Jayson — Sat, 14 Jul 2012 12:41:03 +0000

From the Washington Post, By Editorial Board:

IN AN AGE of ethnic conflict, fatal disease and chronic malnutrition, it seems strange to stumble across figures such as this: 388,000 people die every year from drowning, according to the World Health Organization. To put this number in perspective, drowning accounts for nearly 1 in 14 injury-related deaths worldwide. It is the third-leading cause of unintentional death. It is also the greatest cause of injury and unintentional death among children younger than 5 in both the United States and Asia. This is a problem that traverses the developed and developing worlds.

Predictably, however, those from poorer countries are at higher risk: The rate of death by drowning in Asia is 30 times higher than in the United States. In Bangladesh, Cambodia, Vietnam and Thailand, drowning is responsible for 1 in 4 child deaths — more than the number who die from measles, polio, whooping cough, tetanus, diphtheria and tuberculosis combined.

What makes this public health crisis particularly problematic is that, unlike fatal disease and chronic malnutrition, drowning is not an issue at the forefront of humanitarian aid efforts. Drowning has gone largely unnoticed as a serious health matter because death counts, which rely primarily on hospital reports, fail to take drowning into account. Michael Linnan, technical director at the Alliance for Safe Children, told the Integrated Regional Information Networks that “the child drowning epidemic has been invisible.”

The Alliance for Safe Children and UNICEF’s Office of Research released a report in May that found that nearly all drowning-induced deaths are preventable. Instead of allowing this problem to languish unaddressed, governments should mobilize support for demonstrably effective and low-cost prevention strategies. The report emphasized the long-term value of teaching children over the age of 4 SwimSafe techniques — swimming and rescue training — a program that reduced drowning rates by 90 percent in a research program in Bangladesh. Building low-cost bridges and other barriers is also an effective way to protect unsupervised children from water hazards.

Gordon Alexander, director of UNICEF’s Office of Research, said that such “affordable interventions” could “save hundreds of thousands of children’s lives.” When the data are so clear and the solutions so straightforward, it is time to address what Mr. Alexander correctly termed this “hidden killer.”

Thanks for Making IWSD Successful

Jayson — Thu, 24 May 2012 17:02:14 +0000

Thank you for making the 2012 International Water Safety Day’s inaugural year a huge success. You have helped spread the message of water safety to over 5 million people around the globe and spurred a United States House of Representatives Resolution! From the beginning, your efforts have helped to bring water safety awareness to the forefront and have moved us closer to annual May 15th in-classroom water safety education. Now that’s progress! Keep up the life-changing work you’re doing and mark your calendar for May 15, 2013!

Striving to make a planet that’s 70 percent water, 100 percent water safe!

Working to reduce Maori childhood drowning

Jayson — Tue, 15 May 2012 19:41:10 +0000

From WaterSafe.org.nz:

As the world recognises International Water Safety Day, Te Kura Kaupapa Maori o Puau Te Moana-Nui-a-Kiwa in Glen Innes, Auckland, is revelling in the positive outcomes achieved in the few short weeks since a portable pool was installed under WaterSafe Auckland’s Pools2Schools™ KiwiSport initiative funded by Sport Auckland.

Maori account for nearly half of all drownings in the 0-15yr age group[i] and in an effort to reverse this trend WaterSafe Auckland (WAI) has been working closely with the Kura since the beginning of term, taking a holistic approach to aquatic education whereby knowledge and critical thinking goes hand in hand with the physical skills of swimming and survival.

“Having support to guide us, not just with swimming lessons but with water safety and survival skills has been vital.” says teacher Linda Rudolph. “Water safety is extremely important for our students as they move in to the wharekura because they need to be proficient in swimming and water safety skills in order to participate in waka teetee activities. Furthermore, developing survival skills in the water is imperative to the safety of our tamariki who are the core of our philosophy.”

This holistic approach to aquatic education is a proven pathway for students,” says WAI Business Manager Teresa Stanley, “it can and does save lives. As Linda has highlighted, having that critical thinking is vital to the children to being able to keep themselves safer around water, particularly as they engage more in aquatic activities and they also play an important role in imparting that knowledge to their whanau.”

International Water Safety Day, May 15, is aimed at educating youth in becoming safer in and around water while spreading awareness about drowning, which remains the second leading cause of unintentional injury death for children (0-15yrs) in New Zealand.

Being safer in the water is not just about learning it swim, but having the knowledge to make safer decisions in and around water and fundamental to this are simple consistent messages such as can be found within the International Open Water Drowning Prevention Guidelines[ii] which provide strategies for keeping one’s self and others safe regardless of location and activity.

[i] 43percent of NZ drowning deaths (2007-2011) in the 0-4yr age group and 42 percent for 5-14 years. DrownBase™. Water Safety New Zealand.

[ii] International Open Water Drowning Prevention Guidelines

Keep Yourself Safe

Learn swimming and water safety survival skills

Always swim with others

Obey all safety signs and warning flags

Never go in the water after drinking alcohol

Know how and when to use a lifejacket

Swim in areas with lifeguards

Know the water and weather conditions before getting in the water

Always enter shallow and unknown water feet first

Keep Children and Others Safe

Help and encourage others, especially children, to learn swimming and water safety survival skills

Swim in areas with lifeguards

Set water safety rules

Always provide close and constant attention to children you are supervising in or near water

Know how and when to use lifejackets, especially with children and weak swimmers

Learn first aid and CPR

Learn safe ways of rescuing others without putting yourself in danger

Obey all safety signs and warning flags

For more on International Water Safety Day visit internationalwatersafetyday.org

One on One with Anthony Ervin

Jayson — Fri, 13 Apr 2012 15:21:02 +0000

2000 Olympian and International Water Safety Day Spokesperson Anthony Ervin made a recent visit to Boston, MA. Ervin took time out of his day to talk to us about the importance of water safety and his upcoming meet schedule.

Water Safety Campaigns Catching Fire

Jayson — Fri, 13 Apr 2012 14:36:33 +0000

From Aquatics International, by: Kendra Kozen:

Several annual water safety programs are heating up, and there’s at least one new event. Here’s a look at what’s going on.

International Water Safety Day

(internationalwatersafetyday.org)

May 15 will be the first International Water Safety Day. Created by the founders of Diversity in Aquatics, Jayson Jackson and Shaun Anderson, USA Swimming diversity consultant, the grass-roots event is an effort to promote educational outreach on water safety and thereby address the global drowning epidemic.

“Aquatic enthusiasts from all ‘swims’ of life have been signing up on the ‘what’s your reach’ section of our Website … ,” Anderson said. “We have even heard of some aquatic directors closing pools on the 15th to send aquatic personnel out into the community. This will be our broader approach in the future … to draw more national awareness to the issue as well as create a day of remembrance for those we have lost to drowning.”

Make A Splash

(usaswimming.org)

The Make a Splash campaign is the USA Swimming Foundation’s initiative to bring swimming and water safety education to underserved communities. The campaign now has at least 500 local partners and awarded nearly $300,000 in 2012 grants. This year also marks the 4th Annual Make a Splash Tour with Cullen Jones, sponsored by ConocoPhillips. Jones, a 2008 Olympic gold medalist, visited Houston and New Orleans to speak to children and raise awareness about the importance of learning how to swim. He will make four more stops this summer.

National Water Safety Month

(nationalwatersafetymonth.com)

National Water Safety Month is a joint effort of a number of industry organizations. For 2012, Lynn Sherr, author and award-winning ABC News correspondent, will be promoting safe swimming as an APSP 2012 Swim Ambassador. She recently published SWIM: Why We Love Water (PublicAffairs, 2012). As of press time, NWSM organizers were expecting participation from other notable personalities as well.

Pool Safely

(poolsafely.gov)

Pool Safely: Simple Steps Save Lives is the Consumer Product Safety Commission’s public information campaign associated with the Virginia Graeme Baker Pool and Spa Safety Act. Funding has been approved for 2012 and, Kathleen Reilly, CPSC spokeswoman, said, “We expect to continue working … with partners and others on education and promotional events.”

Events are set to include a pre-Memorial Day First Splash event and Pool Safely Day, in July.

Recreational Water Illness and Injury Prevention Awareness Week

(cdc.gov/healthywater/swimming/rwi/rwi-prevention-week)

This year will be the 8th Annual RWII Prevention Week, the CDC-led effort to inform the public about healthy swimming. The theme for 2012 is education: The use of health communication materials (videos, posters, fact sheets and the like) to teach the public how to prevent RWIIs and drowning. “CDC will enhance its communication outreach … by developing new educational materials for the public,” spokeswoman Catherine Hough said.

The World’s Largest Swimming Lesson

(worldslargestswimminglesson.org)

The 3rd Annual World’s Largest Swimming Lesson is set for June 14. Organizers hope to draw 50,000 participants, with the larger goal of promoting swimming lessons. Olympic gold medalists Rowdy Gaines and Janet Evans will return as the official spokespeople for the event. “Participating as a WLSL Host Location provides waterpark, pool and swim school operators with an incredible platform to communicate that water safety is a personal responsibility and drowning is preventable,” event coordinator Beth Root said.

As of press time, host location registration was up more than 30 percent over 2011. The deadline to register as a host location is May 20.

Open Water Source Highlights IWSD

Jayson — Wed, 30 Nov 2011 14:32:59 +0000

From Open Water Source:

Shaun Anderson and Jayson Jackson continue to do tremendous good in this world. Their latest project, International Water Safety Day, is on May 15, 2012 and is meant to raise awareness of the drowning pandemic to the public.

International Water Safety Day is an initiative by Diversity in Aquatics to to help reduce drowning worldwide. International Water Safety Day is a day designed to educate youth becoming safe in the water while spreading global awareness about the ongoing drowning pandemic.

With over 1,000 deaths daily, the lack of water safety education has propelled drowning to the third leading cause of unintentional injury death worldwide.Diversity in Aquatics is lobbying the global community to push for swimming lessons in schools.

Diversity in Aquatics is first embarking on its mission by promoting and organizing individuals including aquatic professionals, competitive swimmers, coaches, master swimmers, scuba divers, water polo players, recreational swimmers and boaters to hold a water safety event or give a water safety classroom lesson on May 15th, 2012.

Its longer term goal is to leverage this awareness to get water safety lessons included in grade school health classes.

In our travels around the world, we have seen this success and long-term societal benefits from communities ranging from Seal Beach, California to nearly every elementary school in Japan. These communities and their grass roots efforts have proven the long-term merit of having a populace that can swim.

Follow the Leaders: Don’t know how to address minority swimming needs? Take a leap with these trailblazers.

Jayson — Tue, 22 Nov 2011 19:49:34 +0000

From Aquatics International, by: Tara Eggleston:

We know that engaging minority groups in aquatics programs is a national issue, but how can we help reduce the drowning and water-related injury statistics among these groups?

I’ll bet some managers wonder if smaller-scale efforts such as program open houses, community meetings or water safety classes and events really make a difference in capturing this challenging audience. Well, we will never know if we don’t try.

Recently, our department secured the approval and commitment from our local public school system to implement a pilot learn-to-swim and water safety program with second graders from five elementary schools in minority-based neighborhoods within Prince George’s County. Though we are unable to reach every second-grade student in the county, we recognize that we are “swimming in the right direction” to incorporate necessary water safety information into the regular school day of the more than 300 participating students.

The goal of this smaller pilot program is to set the stage for a larger initiative to incorporate swimming and water-safety information into the regular education curriculum throughout the county.

That’s an example of a smaller, local initiative, but let’s talk about our international Web-based leaders in the “diversity movement”: Shaun Anderson and Jayson Jackson, co-founders of the Diversity in Aquatics Program. DAP is a nonprofit organization with the goal of decreasing the rate of drowning worldwide by helping to create, promote and support aquatics programs domestically and internationally.

In speaking with Shaun and Jayson, I was really impressed with their acknowledgement of the significant impact politics play in defeating, in their words, the “pandemic” facing minorities, and their lack of skill and experience in and around water. This is a significant issue in minority communities, and one way to ensure proper support, funding and resources to combat it is to keep this issue in the forefront of our nation’s policy and decision-making agendas. And they are doing just that.

In March 2011, Shaun Anderson was recognized in the House of Representatives by Congressman Chaka Fattah of Pennsylvania for his work with the Diversity in Aquatics Program as well as his work as a USA Swimming diversity consultant. DAP is truly setting a wonderful example for how we, as aquatics professionals, also can serve as advocates for this mission to promote swimming among minority groups.

One of DAP’s upcoming initiatives includes the promotion of International Water Safety Day on May 15, 2012. This inaugural event will serve as the launching pad for an international water safety call to action.

The initiative simply asks industry professionals, community leaders and groups, schools and the like to host a water safety event or to teach a classroom water safety class on that day in 2012. These examples are easy ways to become involved in this international event — all while promoting the overarching theme of safer aquatic experiences for the community, especially minorities. For more information on the International Water Safety Day program, visit internationalwatersafetyday.org.

So, what will be your community’s call to action? And if it is not your own community where there is a need for minority outreach in aquatics, then what will be the call to action to reach out to your neighboring communities in need? Even the smallest of efforts to combat this issue can go a long way. Remember this as you enjoy your next swim. Improving minority participation in aquatics is not just an urban issue — it’s a national issue.

As aquatics professionals, we have the power and resources to reduce these statistics. One lap at a time!

International Water Safety Day Has Been Announced

Jayson — Sat, 14 May 2011 01:30:14 +0000

International Water Safety Day – Striving to make a planet that’s 70 percent water, 100 percent water safe.

What is it?
International Water Safety Day (IWSD) is a day designed to educate youth in becoming safer in and around the water while spreading global awareness about the ongoing drowning pandemic.

With over 30,000 deaths monthly, the lack of water safety education has propelled drowning to the 3rd leading cause of unintentional injury death worldwide. As a result of our many interactions through Diversity in Aquatics, we continue to hear a common thread in what people believe would help curve these statistics: mandated swimming lessons in school curriculums. While mandating school based swim lessons seems to be a daunting task, we will strive to do so with your help.

The Plan:
We are embarking on a two step awareness base plan toward increasing support.

Step One – International Water Safety Day

Step Two – Health Class Curriculum

From this awareness phase base, we will begin our journey to expand swim lessons into grade schools around the world.

So please mark your calendars for next year May 15, 2012.