March Newsletter

March 21, 2017

Dear Pool and Spa Safety Community,

Spring has sprung this week in some parts of the country, while others continue to battle winter weather. Oh, those poor cherry blossoms in our nation’s capital. Regardless of your current climate, spring break and summer activities are quickly approaching — making it a great time to think about your water safety plans for swim season. As you and your family begin preparing for warmer weather activities, take a minute and show your kids and the kids in your community Laurie Berkner’s Pool Safely music video. It’s a fun way to help kids take water safety seriously.

Pool Safely Hits the Road: 2017 NDPA Educational Conference

The National Drowning Prevention Alliance (NDPA) Educational Conference is quickly approaching! The conference, which will be in Pittsburgh from April 11-14, will be an important combination of educational opportunities and speakers from many aspects of the drowning prevention community. The U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC) is proud to be a part of the mix.

CPSC’s new Acting Chair Ann Marie Buerkle will give the lunchtime keynote address on Wednesday, April 12.
Also on Wednesday afternoon, CPSC’s Dr. Jonathan Midgett will lead a session about drowning prevention barriers and layers of protection.
On Thursday afternoon, CPSC’s Scott Wolfson will be participating on a panel moderated by drowning prevention advocate Alan Korn on water safety legislation.

You can still register to attend the conference by visiting the NDPA conference website. We look forward to seeing you there in April!

Partner Highlights

Many of our campaign partners have continued their tireless work to promote water safety and keep children and families across the country safer over the past month.

The Drowning Prevention Coalition of Palm Beach County collected Pool Safely Pledges and educated thousands of students about water safety at a number of community events in South Florida, including via presentations at schools and health fairs.

Howard’s Hope was featured in a WKRN-TV news (Central Tennessee) segment, which shared information about the organization’s free swimming lesson program. You can watch the full segment here.

We recognized CPRParty™ as our latest Featured Partner Spotlight on poolsafely.gov, highlighting the organization as the only nonprofit providing free, in-home CPR awareness and water safety education events.

The ZAC Foundation recognized Pool Safely with a Partner Spotlight on its website, highlighting the campaign’s work with partners to reduce child drownings and drain entrapments in pools and spas. The Foundation’s video on drain safety is an excellent resource headed into swim season – check it out on their Facebook page.

FastMed Urgent Care announced that it will be incorporating Pool Safely materials into its free water safety classes at daycare centers, schools, after-school programs, city events, youth camps and other organizations throughout Arizona this spring.

A big thank you to all of our Pool Safely partners for continuing to use Pool Safely messaging and materials to educate their communities about water safety!

New Partners

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

Blog Highlights

Looking to start your week off with some water safety? The Pool Safely blog updates every Monday morning, and if you haven’t checked it in March, here’s what you’ve missed:

A continuation of our Simple Safety Steps series with a post on the importance of installing barriers, covers and alarms on your pool and spa;
An interview with Blake and Kathy Collingsworth of the Joshua Collingsworth Memorial Foundation; and
Our March Safety Selfie post featuring Kelly Helbig of the Jack Helbig Memorial Foundation.

In the coming weeks, we will continue to feature the work of our amazing partners, including NDPA, in honor of its upcoming Educational Conference – so keep checking back for new posts! If you’d like to be featured on the blog, please email poolsafely@cpsc.gov. We’d love to hear from you!

Thank you for your continued support!

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