July Newsletter

July 28, 2017

Dear Pool and Spa Safety Community,

Summer is in full swing and many Pool Safely partners are busy with keeping their communities safer around the water. From swimming lessons to public safety fairs, we value all the work the 1,000+ organizations in our drowning prevention coalition do to stop drowning. A special thank you to everyone who participated in the annual Pool Safely Pledge Week last week!

Mid-Summer Media Outreach

graphic outlining safety steps As many people in the drowning prevention community know, the summer holidays that are spent around the water typically experience higher rates of incidents, turning celebrations into tragedies. Each summer, Pool Safely reminds families to take extra vigilance around these holidays.

This year, the campaign reminded families of the 4 Simple Steps they should take during their July 4 celebrations, and worked with CPSC’s Spanish-language spokesperson, Carla Coolman, to participate in nearly 20 media interviews coast-to-coast. You can listen to one of Carla’s interviews on Spanish Public Radio, here.

Thank You for Participating in Pledge Week!

This year, Pledge Week took place nationwide from July 17-23. The goal of Pledge Week was to engage Pool Safely partners in a fun, educational way while promoting water safety and encouraging everyone to take the Pledge to Pool Safely. Thank you to all who participated!

This year we tried something new: a daily tweetstorm, featuring a new partner sharing their own unique reasons for why they took the Pledge each day. Each tweetstorm is linked below, in case you missed it:

Monday: CPR Party
Tuesday: ZAC Foundation
Wednesday: Michael Phelps and the Michael Phelps Foundation
Thursday: National Drowning Prevention Alliance
Friday: American Red Cross
Saturday: Stop Drowning Now

Along with a daily tweetstorm, Pool Safely encouraged partners to download and use the Pledge Week Partner Toolkit to engage with their own followers. Many not only used the toolkit but created their own unique graphics and tweets, with some posting their own photos of adults and children taking the Pledge. Overall, throughout Pledge Week we had almost a hundred social media engagements and collected nearly 300 Pledges.

several photos of people holding ipads with signed pledges.

a group of very young children standing around a woman crouched down with her hand raised.

New Pool Safely Partners

9 partner logos

Hard Copy Pool Safely Pledge Cards

Are you a Pool Safely partner who has ordered hard copy Pledge cards through our materials ordering system? If so, it’s critically important that you send your signed Pledges back so that they can be counted! Even if you just have a handful, every signed Pledge counts. As you complete post-event wrap up, please send your Pledge cards to:

Pool Safely
U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission
4330 East West Highway
Bethesda, Maryland 20814

Have questions or a large number of Pledge cards? Send us a note at poolsafely@cpsc.gov.

Partner Highlights

collage of different partner events that took place in July.

In addition to participating in Pool Safely Pledge Week, many of our partners have found creative ways to continue the conversation about water safety in their communities:

NCH Safe & Healthy Children’s Coalition of Collier County partnered with Stew Leonard III Children’s Charities to educate young students in Collier County, Florida about water safety (photo: top left).
Drowning Prevention Coalition of Palm Beach County collected Pool Safely Pledges and taught children how to be safer in and around the water through presentations at camps and events in Palm Beach County, Florida (photo: top right).
CPR Party™ spread the word about the importance of learning CPR through interviews with The Washington Post, Bethesda Magazine and Good Morning America (photo: bottom left).
The ZAC Foundation continued to teach children across the country the A, B, C, & D’s of water safety through a series of ZAC Camps. Check out this article about the Philadelphia, Pennsylvania ZAC Camp from The Philadelphia Inquirer (photo: bottom right).
Fort Worth Drowning Prevention Coalition and the Junior League of Fort Worth partnered to distribute Pool Safely educational materials at a Kids in the Kitchen Health & Safety Fair.
IXP Corporation announced its new partnership with Pool Safely via a news release in the IXP Newsroom.
Enjuris created a new water safety page on its website featuring Pool Safely.
The OC Register featured Pool Safely partners Stop Drowning Now, Children’s Hospital of Orange County and Families United to Prevent Drowning member Jasper Ray Foundation in an article about water safety.
Shallow Water Blackout Prevention announced the kickoff of its new Ambassador Program designed for volunteers who want to help raise awareness about shallow water blackout. Learn more about the program and how you can get involved here.

Thank you to all Pool Safely partners who are using campaign messaging to educate kids and families about how to be safer in and around the water this season! Education is a key step in reaching our goal to stop drowning. Also, a reminder to our partners to please continue to let us know about your water safety efforts by emailing poolsafely@cpsc.gov so that we can help promote them.

Drowning Prevention Awareness Month in Arizona

Late summer means pool parties, and a time for families to remember the simple water safety steps that are so important to keep kids safe. Arizona welcomes August with “Drowning Impact Awareness Month,” a statewide campaign coordinated by Pool Safely partner Phoenix Children’s Hospital. The campaign features official proclamations, events and purple ribbons remembering those children in Arizona who have been lost to a fatal drowning.

Blog highlights:

a woman holding a signed pledge and partner logos.

Check out the post on The Josh Project to learn more about their efforts to break the cycle of fear of water, which earned them a spot on the CNN Top 10 Heroes of the Year of the year list.
In case you missed it: the latest data shows that the number of reported fatal child drownings in swimming pools involving children younger than 5—the most vulnerable population—has decreased 17 percent nationwide since 2010, the year the Pool Safely campaign was started.
Why does Melissa Sutton, President of the Drowning Prevention Coalition of Arizona take the Pool Safely Pledge? So she can lead by example. Check out her featured #SafetySelfie on the blog.
Pledge Week 2017 has come and gone, but it’s always a good time to take the Pool Safely Pledge!
With more than 3,000 members and Affiliate member program is in all 50 states, the Independent Pool and Spa Service Association (IPSSA) is working in backyards across the country to help keep families safer in and around the water. Read more about their efforts here.

Pool Safely On the Move

Women standing in front of a Pool Safely table According to new data from our partners at the USA Swimming Foundation, 64 percent of African-American children cannot swim and 78 percent that African-American children will not learn how to swim if their parents cannot swim. Pool Safely is working together with our partners to help turn these numbers around, including outreach to leadership within the African-American community. This past week, Pool Safely attended the 108^th NAACP Convention, speaking with conference attendees about the importance of water safety and gathering over 100 Pledge signatures.

Mark Your Calendars

July 22-29: The Safe Kids Worldwide Childhood Injury Prevention Conference (Prevcon) in Baltimore, Maryland brings together injury prevention professionals from across the United States and around the world to discuss, share and learn ways to make an even greater impact for children and families.

July 29: Pool Safely partner FastMed Urgent care will distribute Pool Safely materials at the Tucson Police Foundation’s Back to School Safety & Health Fair in Tucson, Arizona.