Water Safety Month: A Brief History & Hope Floats Foundation’s Dedication to Saving Lives

WATER SAFETY BY STEF BAKER HOPE FLOATS PARTNER LIAISON

MONTH: A BRIEF HISTORY & HOPE FLOATS FOUNDATION’S DEDICATION TO SAVING LIVES

Hope Floats Foundation (HFF), whose mission is to help save lives by providing swim lesson scholarships to children who otherwise would not be able to afford them, is a huge advocate on the national stage for water safety.

Each year, HFF strongly promotes National Water Safety Month to help spread awareness about the importance of safe water practices in an effort to reduce accidental drowning statistics. In May, many schools and swim organizations celebrated swim story successes and promoted water safety measures during National Water Safety Month (NWSM). Although many are aware of, support and celebrate NWSF, its history is not well known.

NWSM was born from National Water Safety Week, created in 2003 by The World Waterpark Association (WWA). In 2007, The National Recreation and Park Association, who had been celebrating National Aquatics Week in July, joined WWA. Together, they decided May was the better of the two months to create awareness, knowing it is when swimming and other water activities begin to increase across the United States. In 2009, The Association of Pool and Spa Professionals (now the Pool and Hot Tub Alliance) came aboard and added waterparks, public and backyard pools specifically to the initiative. In 2010 the American Red Cross completed the coalition. According to the American Red Cross website, NWSF was created “in response to the need for ongoing public education on safe water practices…,” including the importance of swim lessons. It has grown from a one-week long event to a month-long campaign to promote safety in and around all bodies of water, in order to help reduce the number of drowning accidents in the U.S.

Interestingly, in order to create more awareness and a high level of credibility, one of the things that WWA coordinates (on behalf of the coalition) is Gubernatorial proclamations from all 50 governors’ offices citing May as National Water Safety Month. This level of support from state governments really helps to elevate the cause, bringing it into each community across the country. In 2020 many Governors’ offices were not issuing any proclamations because of the Covid-19 pandemic. However, 29 of the 50 states felt it was important to continue the momentum. This year all offices were again urged to participate; the final participation rate data was unavailable at time this article was written.

According to the Center for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) in Data Brief #149 issued April 2014, “Unintentional Drowning Deaths Between 1999-2010” (when NWSM was started), drowning was responsible for more deaths among children ages 1-4 than any other cause except congenital anomalies (birth defects). Drowning fatalities were the second- leading cause of unintentional injury-related death behind motor vehicle crashes among children ages 1-14. Boys are at a slightly higher risk than girls. Additionally, this brief stated the fatal unintentional drowning rate for African Americans was significantly higher than that of whites across all ages and the disparity was widest among children 5-18 years old. Numbers showed that African American children ages 5-19 drown in

swimming pools at rates 5.5 times higher than their white peers. This disparity is greatest among those 11-12 years old, where African American children drown in swimming pools at rates 10 times more than white children.

HFF has helped to create more awareness on the importance of swim lessons, especially for minority and disadvantaged children, since its founding in 2016. Aside from working closely with 31 swim school partners to help with scholarship fundraising and awareness campaigns, HFF also uses its social media platforms to regularly disseminate useful, timely and critical information to the public. Many individuals, aside from those who own or help run swim schools, are educated by the postings and materials made possible by HFF.

This year, Water Safety Month at HFF meant the announcement of their first ever National Ambassador, Madelina “Maddie” Garcia, an eight-year-old girl, who survived an accidental drowning when she was just three. Maddie, who lives near Waco, Texas, took it upon herself last summer to raise over $500 for HFF by setting up a lemonade stand in front of her home on the anniversary of her drowning. She wanted to turn her near-tragedy into something that raised awareness. She and her mom, with no connection at all to HFF, found the organization on the web and decided that they wanted to help the cause: to save more lives.

Although NWSF is now behind us, summer is here. Now is the time for us all to remain vigilant and outspoken about the importance of water safety. Accidental drownings are not limited to one month. We cannot let our guard down. As the Red Cross stated in a 2019 article on their website, “Children <and adults> should learn to swim so they at least achieve the skills of water competency: be able to enter the water, get a breath, stay afloat, change position, swim a distance and then get out of the water safely.” That is our goal, one child at a time. Swim lessons save lives, and HFF is here to help.

For more information regarding Hope Floats Foundation Swim School Partnerships and/or Scholarship information please go to https://www.hopefloats.foundation or email them at info@hopefloats.foundation.