When Nate Tschol, one of the visionaries behind International Water Safety Day, approached me last year to gain SwimSwam’s support for his program, the concept was a simple one. Similar to Earth Day, he and co-founders Shaun Anderson, Jayson Jackson, and Miriam Lynch wanted International Water Safety Day to be a day when swimming people around the world did something positive for water safety: volunteered to give a lesson, spread awareness about the dangers of drowning, or do whatever else they could on the chance of saving a life.
To learn more about International Water Safety Day, visit the official website.
What began as a simple vision has grown into an international movement, and on Wednesday, the 2nd annual International Water Safety Day, Tschol and many of his supporters will go before a group of congressional leaders to present on the epidemic that drowning has become, and hope to add their name to the list of supporters that have gotten behind IWSD.
Those scheduled to speak include:
That’s a list of very, very powerful people in the world of aquatics and beyond the world of aquatics, showing that a relatively simple concept when pushed by the energy of this group of four can change the world.
According to the CDC, every day in the United States, about 10 people die from drowning. According to the Orange County Fire Authority, a swimming pool is 14 times more likely than a motor vehicle to be involved in the death of a child under the age of 4, and yet the amount of government resources invested into securing the safety of children in cars absolutely dwarfs the amount invested on preventing dr0wnings.