Aquatics Guide - 2018 - 19

between aquatic professionals and their
approach to community water safety and
drowning prevention. I believe that local
aquatic professionals should lead the way
and " hold the torch " in their community
for the education of parents and children
about water safety, both in the commercial and residential setting. They not only
should emphasize water safety at all their
facilities and in all their programs, but
also should develop and implement water
safety events at their facility and develop
partnerships with the local school districts
in order to present assemblies to students
and workshops to parents.
From the facility point of view, many
agencies have an annual or semiannual
water safety community outreach event
where they have booths set up that each
emphasize a different aspect of water safety, from how to safely take your children

to the local pool or aquatic center, to the
layers of protection needed at residential
pools to ensure children do not get into
the backyard pool without adult supervision. Several avenues for materials exist,
including the U.S. Consumer Product
Safety Commission (CPSC) Pool Safely
campaign (www.poolsafely.gov), as well
as the World Waterparks Association's
annual World's Largest Swimming Lesson™ (https://tinyurl.com/ya5ln5ta).
As a former municipal aquatics manager who developed and presented a
30-minute water safety presentation for
local schools, I found that school districts
will gladly welcome you into their school
during the month of May to present this
information to their students. Not only
does its coincide with National Water
Safety Month, but more and more states
now include water safety standards in

their curriculum. For example, the State
of California specifically calls out water
safety information, " Evaluate the risk and
safety factors that may affect participation
aquatic activities throughout a lifetime. "
A partnership with local schools establishes a win-win situation for everyone
and allows you to teach students how to
be " SAFE " in and around the water:
* Stay with children - Parents must be
with their children at all times.
* Always be attentive - Parents must not
only be with their children, but be attentive to them at all times (i.e., not on
a cell phone).
* Fear the water - Parents much teach
their children the dangers that are present with any body of water.
* Educate your children - Parents must
proactively teach their children about
how to properly behave around the water.

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Parks & Recreation

17
http://www.poolsafely.gov https://www.tinyurl.com/ya5ln5ta
Aquatics Guide - 2018

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of Aquatics Guide - 2018
