Hey guys!  I am a new proud member to Diversity in Aquatics and just wanted to make you aware of a really interesting campaign for a new product about to hit the market called the Seal.  It's the first-ever portable swim monitoring and drowning detection system for residential and commercial pools.  This team has begun a campaign to end drowning worldwide and this device is going to drastically change the way we learn to swim.  I would love to hear some of your feedback on this!  Take a look…

In the wake of:

a recent Citiparks Aquatics Division audit by City Controller Michael Lamb, as well as

my participation with the PPS Athletic Reform Task Force, and

the merger of some PPS high school sports teams to the WPIAL, and

the 2012 arrival of additional, terrible, institutional roadblocks at PPS,

it is prudent push all involved to 'think again' about aquatics. An overhaul of aquatics with the city, PPS and others is past due, especially in…

How do we end drowning?  We change people’s behavior around water. 

How do we change behavior?  We change intrinsic motivation, how someone acts even if no one else is around. 

How do we change intrinsic motivation?  Tell people what to do.  Motivate people to do the right thing.  Make it easy…

I was reminded time and again this week of why I like kids.  That is not to say that I would ever return to middle school, even on pain of death.  That is not to say that I think kids should rule the world and parents and adults should not be making the tough decisions and sticking with them.  It is to say that if we listen to our kids it can be a good reminder of the…

There are two types of drowning.  There is drowning in a high-income country and there is drowning in a low-income country.  The source is the same.  Unintentional submersion in water resulting in asphyxia caused by a liquid entering the lungs.  The end result is the same.  Death, and if not death than permanent injury.  The emotional toll is the…

My son spotted the t-shirt on the attached photo at the Shedd Aquarium gift shop last weekend.  It cracks me up every time I look at it.  It is reminiscent of Gary Larson’s brilliant Far Side cartoons that routinely turned our perceptions upside down with hilarious results.  We often think of how we are affected by the world around us, but how often…

The scene in the locker room was all too familiar.  Mothers with a variation of determined, frazzled, happy or ‘I’m just about to blow’ looks on their face wrestling pudgy toddler arms into winter coats and trying to maneuver feet into boots while the same oblivious child is determined to explore the lockers, the inside of their nose, or those tantalizing crumbs left by…

There are wonderful theories about how we should end drowning.  Everyone should have one-on-one swim lessons with a qualified instructor.  Every pool should be fenced.  Every potentially dangerous body of water should be fenced with warning signs that the public obeys.  Parents should supervise their children at all times near water.  Approved lifejackets should…

Social media can be a powerful tool or a destructive influence.  We all know that well-chosen words can elevate or decimate, but we also know that time heals all wounds and being able to forget words, or at least add a rosy hue to the memory, can be a blessing.

Social media and the internet have changed that.  Once it’s…

Natural disasters like flooding and tsunamis.  Unsafe environments like overloaded ferries or rickety boats.  Over-estimating skill and under-estimating the power of unfamiliar water.  Alcohol-induced poor judgement.  Lack of swimming ability.…

Do you remember your baby’s first bath?  My children are 8 and 10 now and I still vividly recall the slightly concerned frown when they were first carefully lowered into the baby bath, which quickly dissolved into sheer bliss.  Just was exciting was the day they discovered that they had power over the water.  If you hit water with your fist it splashes!…

For many years, conventional wisdom has held that blacks can not swim.  (I use the term ‘black’ to apply to anyone of African descent.  The term is meant with respect to encompass the broad range of cultures descending from the African continent)  A widely discredited academic report years ago stated that the physiology of a black person leads to their sinking…

Hannah Plint drowned on October 4, 2007, just shy of her third birthday.  

Joshua Collingsworth drowned on June 4, 2008, age 2 1/2.

Stewie Leonard drowned on January 1, 1989, age 21 months.

An estimated 600,000 children drown…

Death intruded into my life twice last week.  Shockingly.  Wrenchingly.  Unexpectedly.

All deaths are not equal.  The impact is not equal.  As I grieve the loss of a family member, someone I have known my whole life, I have a visceral feeling that part of my family’s roots have been torn up too early, violently.  It is a…

Good news!  There is one area where we are surging forward with growth rates in the double digits.  The bad news?  The area is childhood obesity.  

According to the CDC, childhood obesity has more than tripled in the past 30 years, up to 20% of children ages 6-11 in the U.S.  It used to be that Americans were the global joke…

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 it?

I’ve been working on the issue for four years now and…

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 simple.  Parents look to, and trust, their child’s doctor to keep…

Hurricane Irene blasted the East Coast of the U.S. last week.  Millions of dollars of damage, widespread power outages, and so far 40 deaths reported across seven states.  Why did so many people die?  With any natural disaster some tragic accidents occur.  An 11-year old boy was killed when a tree fell through the roof of his…

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 sound of cicadas screeching has been drowned out by the buzz of…