April Newsletter

April 24, 2017

Dear Pool and Spa Safety Community,

May is Water Safety Month and Pool Safely is gearing up for a super summer with many events and activities – as are many of you! Please share your own water safety events and activities with us so we can share them on PoolSafely.gov, in upcoming issues of this newsletter and via our social media channels. We especially love sharing your event photos and videos throughout the month! To share, please email poolsafely@cpsc.gov.

NDPA Educational Conference Highlights

Last week, Pool Safely participated as a proud sponsor and host committee member of the 16th annual National Drowning Prevention Alliance (NDPA) Educational Conference in Pittsburgh. We were excited to see many familiar and new faces there! Our Acting Chairman Ann Marie Buerkle shared important updates on the campaign during her lunchtime keynote address and highlighted the great work of the NDPA community to keep kids safer in the water and save more lives this swim season. Our partnerships are the driving force behind the campaign and the Acting Chairman had a chance to personally meet and hear from some of the leading drowning prevention organizations, the pool industry and the NDPA Board. Acting Chairman Buerkle also spent time with the families who make up Families United to Prevent Drowning. She listened to each of their heartbreaking stories and emphasized that the collective cause of Families United is our cause at Pool Safely: to honor their children and save others.  While at the conference, the Acting Chairman joined the movement of more than 50,000 people who have taken the Pool Safely Pledge (see photo above).

In addition to the Acting Chair’s keynote, Dr. Jonathan Midgett from Commissioner Elliot Kaye’s office also presented on the psychology behind barriers and drowning prevention. And, Scott Wolfson participated in a panel with his longtime friends Nancy Baker and Alan Korn, as well as APSP’s Carvin DiGiovanni and Attorney Steve Getzoff, to discuss the history of the Virginia Graeme Baker Pool & Spa Safety Act. The VGB Act, which was signed nearly 10 years ago, has saved countless lives and made tens of thousands of pools safer.

We enjoyed seeing many of our partners and meeting new ones at one of the year’s most important water safety events! Mark your calendars for next year: the NDPA conference travels to Tampa from April 2-6, 2018.

 New Pool Safely Partners

The campaign would like to welcome 17 new organizations that partnered with Pool Safely this month:

• Baumgartner Law Firm
• British Swim School
• Cayla’s Coats
• City of Plano
• Clear Elements, LLC
• Diversity in Aquatics
• Greenville Fire-Rescue
• The Family YMCA of Southeast Mississippi
• Judah Brown Project
• Knapp & Roberts
• Latham Pool Products
• Law Offices of John Rapillo
• Miami-Dade County
• Tim the Poolman
• Seal Innovation, Inc.
• Shallow Water Blackout Prevention
• Staver Law Group, P.C.

Partner Highlights

As warm weather returns to many parts of the country, our campaign partners continue the charge to educate their communities about how to keep kids safer in and around water:

• CPR Party™ shared with the media how its CPR instruction program can help save lives via stories on NBC Washington and in Parade Magazine.
• Abbey’s Hope launched its Water Watchdog Pledge to share tips for staying safer around the water. The pledge also reminds adults how to be effective watchdogs when children are swimming.
• USA Swimming Foundation launched a new website to share resources for parents and a national registry of reputable swim lesson providers.
• Safe & Healthy Children’s Coalition of Collier County implemented a pilot swim program that is helping 27 moms learn lifesaving skills in the water (photo: top left) and distributed Pool Safely Water Watcher Cards at a local beach safety event (photo: bottom right).
• The Drowning Prevention Coalition of Palm Beach County continued to collect Pool Safely Pledges and educate thousands of students about water safety in South Florida, including at the South Florida Science Center and Aquarium’s Engineering Day and various neighborhood/school fairs (photo: top right, bottom left)
• A group of students in Clarksville, Tenn. learned how to swim for free through the Howard’s Hope Flying Fish program.
• New Pool Safely partner Shallow Water Blackout Prevention announced its partnership with Pool Safely on its website.

Please join me in thanking these and all other Pool Safely partners who are using campaign messaging to educate their communities!

Upcoming Events – Mark Your Calendars!
Additionally, several partners are organizing upcoming water safety events. Be sure to add these to your calendar!

• Monday, May 15: Pool Safely is looking forward to joining the American Red Cross and Diversity in Aquatics to promote and celebrate International Water Safety Day on Monday, May 15! This day will spread global awareness of preventing drownings and educate people to be safer in and around the water.

• Thursday, June 22: The 2017 World’s Largest Swimming Lesson, an annual event created by the World Waterpark Association to educate communities about the importance of teaching children to swim, is Thursday, June 22. Register to host an event at your facility and learn how to get involved at the new org!

Blog Highlights

• This month on the blog you can also learn more about the organization behind the NDPA Educational Conference. Check out our interview with NDPA President Adam Katchmarchi.
• While you are reading the blog, also take a look at our partner post from the World Waterpark Association. Our interview with Aletha Ezra, Director of Park Member Development, is sure to get you excited and ready for National Water Safety Month and the World’s Largest Swimming Lesson (WLSL).
• Finally, as you gear up for summer swim season, make sure your children know how to Pool Safely and take the Pledge as a family!

Thank you for your continued support.

Elizabeth Klinefelter
Pool Safely Campaign Leader
U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission