One child drowns every minute.

Drowning is the leading cause of death for children ages 1-4 globally.

Drowning is entirely preventable - so why aren’t we preventing…

The Florida chapter of the American Academy of Pediatrics spearheaded an innovative initiative.  They write prescriptions for water safety and swimming classes for infants and toddlers.  The result?  Safer children and more aware parents.  

The concept is…

In Chicago we are nearing the end of a summer season of the most violent and unpredictable weather that I have seen in almost 48 years.  Half a dozen times in two months we’ve gone from some rather benign gray clouds to tornado-force winds and torrential rain within a matter of minutes.  The…

In Chicago we are nearing the end of a summer season of the most violent and unpredictable weather that I have seen in almost 48 years.  Half a dozen times in two months we’ve gone from some rather benign gray clouds to tornado-force winds and torrential rain within a matter of minutes.  The summer…

Ryan Lochte beat Michael Phelps in a race.  Pretty amazing just as a physical accomplishment, but even more exciting from my point of view, he’s very cool.  As in getting loads of endorsements, has ‘the look’, and the kind of ‘grooves to his own drummer’ cool that kids will respond to. …

August is when many families pack up and head off - whether it’s a planned trip far away or just a day at the beach, pool or water park - anything to keep kids and tempers cool.

As a single mom who has traveled solo across multiple continents with two…

Memories of Mr. Bernklau’s fifth grade class.  

Italy wins the World…

Every day for four years now I have gotten up and worked towards ending childhood drowning. 

I have been blessed in my life, particularly with two amazing kids that are legally mine, and two more incredible kids who I added to my family in…

Women aren’t strong enough.  Women aren’t brave enough.  Women don’t have the physical stamina.  All the old excuses why women can’t.....well, fill in the blank - drive, vote, participate in physically demanding sports, and on and on, ad nauseam, and I do mean ad nauseam (adv. to a disgusting…

I had the opportunity to read ‘Jabari Makes A Splash’ to a group of preschoolers recently.  You can listen along on YouTube if you…

Pretty harsh, but it’s true.  If your child is dead they don’t need food, water, health care, clothing or education.  

This harsh truth finally upended a mental roadblock that has bothered me for several years.  How to justify teaching children to swim if…

I’m all about innovation.  Not just for the sake of creating new things, but when innovation turns conventional wisdom on it’s head with better results.  Jabari fits into that category - I’m challenging ideas on when and how we involve children to keep them safe.  Jabari’s mantra to parents…

Vaccines save lives.  Vaccines prevent diseases, they don’t cure them.  

The concept is simple, introduce a small amount of the disease you are trying to prevent  into the body and allow the body to develop natural immunities.  Teach the body what to…

Yes, you heard me correctly, water safety is not learning to swim, or at least not ‘just’ swimming lessons.  Time and again when I say that we need to teach water safety to young children I see heads nodding in agreement, “Yes!  All kids need swimming lessons!”  True, swimming lessons are an…

Is drowning a problem or is it a symptom of a deeper issue?  And why even debate semantics when kids keep dying?  

I believe that drowning is actually a symptom - it’s what happens when we develop an adversarial relationship with water, and with children.  And I believe that unless we peel back the layers and look at the root causes of why children drown we won’t create lasting change.  We’re just putting band-aids on…

I am participating in the International Drowning Prevention Conference in Vietnam next week.  There will be over 400 participants from 50 countries gathering together to share information, to learn - and to develop a global platform regarding preventing…

Don Walsh is an extraordinary man by anyone’s definition.  Mentor to Navy SEAL candidates, 3-tour Vietnam War Veteran, coach for minority women’s triathalon teams, guitarist, water safety author, husband, and father.  He’s been a serious open water swimming competitor for three…

Every week I see the same little boy, around 4, wailing through his swim lesson.  Always the same routine - he enters the pool area and starts crying.  He cries for 30 minutes straight, quite pathetically, and stops as soon as the towel is wrapped around him and he’s walking calmly into the…

When my son was about one we were on one of those turbulent flights where you suspect even the pilot is white-knuckling it.  I made one of my better parenting decisions at that moment.  I looked at him and said ‘this is the fun part, where the plane goes bumpity-bump!’  And, here’s the…

There are so many great water safety programs out there.  Won’t you take a moment to share yours?   

Here is a brief, confidential survey.  It only takes a few minutes to…