Dear Friends,

As summer moves into the final weeks of the season I am pleased to announce that the Swim for Life Foundation’s Annual Ocean Swim will be held on September 19, 2010.  This is our 8th annual swim and once again will be at Main Beach Corona Del Mar in Newport Beach on Sunday morning with the swim commencing at 10:00am. We are excited to have our new website recently activated which allows us to register swimmers online.  Registration fees for each swimmer will include a goody bag with cap and goggles, generously donated by Finis Inc., an event t-shirt and our traditional barbecue lunch provided by the Newport Rib Co.

Please click the link on the home page for information on participant registration and for sponsorship or donation options.  Registration will also be offered at the beach on the morning of the event and if preferable, donations may be mailed to: Swim for Life Foundation, 100 W. Main St. Suite 4, Tustin CA 92780.   Tax ID # 87-0703620

If you are planning to attend as a spectator only, please RSVP by Sept. 11th at 714-227-6000 or 714-225-7680 to help us determine the food order.

Sponsorship

We hope that many of you will consider becoming an event sponsor at one of the following levels:  Bronze $250, Silver $500, Gold $1,000, Platinum $2,500 and Diamond $5,000.  We are appreciative of donations in any amount and all proceeds will help the Swim for Life Foundation reduce drowning with our Safer 3 Drowning Prevention Program and through our Sustaining Partnership position with the National Drowning Prevention Alliance.

Please join us on Sunday morning, September 19, 2010 at 10:00am as a swimmer, spectator or sponsor and enjoy a family style beach party hosted by Blue Buoy Swim School and the Swim for Life Foundation.

For further information please read more on this site, or call Cindy Johnson 714-227-6000 or Johnny Johnson 714-225-7680.  See you at the beach as we “Swim for Life”!

Sincerely,

Johnny Johnson

President

Swim22’s – The EXTREME ADVENTURE CHALLENGE is to benefit Jay Nolan Community Services, The Surfrider Foundation and Rise Above Plastics. Set for October 4th -6th 2010.

Swim22 stands for the monumental challenge and mileage each swimmer will endure to create active awareness of Jay Nolan Community Services, Surfrider Foundation and Rise Above Plastic by swimming the open water between Catalina Island and the Southern California mainland.

Swim 22 is currently looking at building a team of elite and Olympic swimmers, LA County Lifeguards, and Coast Guards, both men and women, to participate in the final approach to the coast line. The swimmers will each pair off with a disabled young man, women and adult. They will swim along side of them bringing them to the coast for this one of a kind finish certain to be newsworthy!

SWIM22 is about testing the limits and logistics of open water swimming. Each swimmer dependent on the other to finish. Each swimmer dependent upon his support crew and guide boat Captains for their skills.

This swim will make history with its four contiguous crossings in one singular event. An Extreme Adventure Challenge like this has never been accomplished in any swimming channel across the world.

Locally based and an international open water swimmer Jen Schumacher, who’s already accomplished the Catalina Channel once, has recently joined the team to help make history and benefit those living with developmental disabilities.

To download the complete brochure for information, click here:  swim22

Links:

Jay Nolan Community Services

Surfrider Foundation

Rise Above Plastics

EACH2O

Kudos to the Wolfson Children’s Hospital, Kohls and the Safe Kids of Northeast Florida for getting the word out.

Download their beautiful and informative SafeKids Water Safety Brochure for tips on staying safe and an understanding of the 5 Truths About Childhood Drowning.

It just goes to show you that we can’t ever be too careful when it comes to the water. And that Safer Kids, Safer Water and  Safer Response is a universal Truth no matter how you learn the lesson!

Johnny & Cindy Johnson are speaking at a conference in Acapulco for the newly formed Mexican Swim School Assn on Aug. 26-28.

They will speak on their highly successful Blue Buoy teaching philosphy & methods and also do a presentation on the Swim for Life Foundation and the Safer 3 Program.

Thanks to the hard work and persistence of  Janet Zeal, owner of the School of Swimming in Jacksonville Florida, McDonalds kept up its support of the Safer 3, despite budget cutbacks. According to McDonalds, the message that Safer 3 promotes is just too important to let go.

Janet has a long-standing relationship with the regional McDonalds management team and is making plans to resume their Safer 3 tray liner program for next year. Every time a child orders Happy Meal, they’ll look down and read about Sammy, Timmy & Gilbert.

Thanks Janet!

Click here to download the School of Swimming’s summer Newsletter

Jim Spiers, Owner of SwimJim Inc. and board member of Swim for Life, will be featured on the Martha Stewart Morning Show at 8am Monday June 28th.

It will be on Sirius XM radio station 157.  Jim will be talking about swim lessons, water safety and the Safer 3 (what else!)

Go Jim!!!! We’ll be listening.

Noting that nearly 500 children drown in backyard swimming pools each year, and drowning is the number one cause of death among children under five, PoolSafetyNetwork.org declared June to be Water Safe Kids — Drowning Prevention Month — a national effort to provide the media, community leaders and parents with extensive resources and information about drowning, drowning prevention, and a call to action” encouraging parents and community leaders to sign pledges and to make community proclamations.

All of these activities are aimed to help educate the public and ultimately to help reduce the number of drowning incidents. The pledges and a model proclamation are downloadable on the PoolSafetyNetwork.org Website.

According to many sources, including the Centers for Disease Control and The American Academy of Pediatrics, nearly 500 children drown in backyard swimming pools and approximately 3,000 children suffer neurological damage after experiencing a near-drowning incident.

Medical expenses and ongoing care for these victims can exceed $200,000 per year. The total medical cost associated with drowning is estimated to be approximately $3.5 billion, annually.

Arizona, Florida and California statistically have the highest number of drowning deaths in this country. There is much work to be done to avoid these tragedies,” said Todd Appleman, founder of PoolSafetyNetwork.org.

While the number of drowning incidents remains fairly constant, losing 500 children each year and seeing some 3,000 children suffer a lifetime of disabilities, is unacceptable. Our focus is set on educating the public and working with industry experts and local communities to move the needle in any way we can to save lives and avoid the trauma of losing a child to drowning.”

According to Appleman, drowning is considered to the silent killer” — meaning children often drown when parents and adults are near-by. While most parents believe they are vigilant and responsible supervisors of their children around swimming pools, in reality, there is low awareness about the seriousness of child drowning and low awareness about what parents can do to help minimize its danger.”

A Harris Interactive poll completed in 2003 revealed that only 19 percent of Americans were aware that drowning is the leading cause of death among young children,” said Appleman. While 59 percent of swimming pool owners who have pool alarms and other safety devices, experts are concerned that 41 percent of pool owners are not using layers of protection” to supplement supervision of their children

The survey also revealed that 59 percent of American homes with swimming pools only have one or more of the layers of protection” in place, such as fences around the pool, self-closing gates, gate alarms, a retracting pool safety cover and a pool alarm.

All of the layers of protection create a series of barriers that keep the child from entering the pool area which is considered to be the most dangerous area in the home,” said Appleman. Unfortunately, the study also reveals that only 59 percent have layers of protection.

Layers of Measures include: a permanent fence fully surrounding the pool with a self-closing gate, a removable fence fully surrounding the pool, a pool safety cover, a door or gate alarm, or a pool alarm.

We are concerned that 41 percent of pool owners are either unaware of what should be done to protect children or they simply do not consider the threat seriously enough,” said Appleman. A serious accident takes only seconds to unfold. Many children drown within a few feet of their parents. Parents are commonly on the phone, or pre-occupied. Since children drown almost ’silently, once the child is submerged the parents may not notice the childs being in danger until it is too late.”

About http://PoolSafetyNetwork.org:

PoolSafetyNetwork.org is a collaborative effort made possible through a network of concerned individuals who share a common goal of preventing drowning incidents. Our aim is to serve as a reliable, one-stop online resource for the latest information and data from various sources about water safety and efforts to reduce the number of incidents that take the lives of so many children each year. Funded in part by an unrestricted grant Safety Turtle and eSafetyAlert.com, PoolSafetyNetwork.org is a not-for-profit organization. We encourage you to put the information found on our Website to work in your home and in your community.

Author Information

Todd Appleman

THE APPLEMAN GROUP

In a reversal of a long standing position, the American Society of Pediatrics has now indicated that giving children swimming lessons as young as 1 year of age is helpful in reducing drowning.

UPDATE:

Thanks to all the hard working WLSL Host Location Facilities! Because of their support, thousands of children around the globe bobbed, floated and flutter kicked their way into the record books by participating in The World’s Largest Swimming Lesson™ at 2pm GMT on June 3rd. Hundreds of aquatic facilities, from Disney’s Typhoon Lagoon near Orlando, Florida to swim schools in Orange Country, CA to community centers in the Bronx, to locations as far reaching as Zambia, Lebanon, Dubai, and the USAG Humphreys in South Korea joined together to build awareness about the vital importance of teaching children to swim to help prevent drowning.

We’re looking forward to setting a new record next year with the hope that some day everyone will understand that drowning CAN and SHOULD be prevented.

To watch a video from one of the host locations, click here.

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Join the country, along woth Olympic Gold Medalists Rowdy Gaines and Janet Evans as well as kids and parents at aquatic facilities around the globe as we set a new Guinness World Record for the largest simultaneous swimming lesson ever conducted, to spread the word Swimming Saves Lives!

Blue Buoy Swim School (1702 Nisson Rd. Tustin CA) is a registered WLSL Host Location for the event. The WLSL will be held at Blue Buoy on Thursday June 3 from 7AM to 7:30AM. Registration begins at 6AM. For information on participating at the Blue Buoy Swim School, which is a Swim for Life coalition founding member school, please contact Cindy Johnson at 714-227-6000 or 714-832-8910 or by email at Cindy@bluebuoy.com

Please note the Guinness World Record attempt begins precisely at 7AM. Everyone participating in the record attempt must be registered, in position and ready to begin the lesson well before the official start time for the lesson.

For more information on finding a local participating swim school near you, go to WLSL.org.

Modeled after an initiative in New Zealand which challenged the country’s population to display its swimming proficiency, approximately 300 local residents attended the Swim for Life Foundation’s “Swim for Life Safety Challenge” on Sunday, May 23, at Blue Buoy Swim School in Tustin.  Approximately 70 participants of all ages swam nonstop for distances that ranged from an eighth of a mile to a mile, with the youngest swimmers jumping into the water and returning to the side of the pool.  Certificates of proficiency were presented to all swimmers in a show of appreciation for their awareness of the importance of water safety.  New this year was the safety challenge, in which fully-clothed children jumped into the pool to demonstrate the skills they have learned to apply, even when they unexpectedly fall into the water.  The event is associated with the United States Swim School Association’s internationally recognized “Kids Swimming for Kids” events.

Orange County Olympian John Mykkanen (’84 Games) was on hand to encourage and congratulate swimmers.  The festivities also included a silent auction of signed memorabilia and private lessons with Olympians Jason Lezak and Janet Evans; a golf package; tickets to local amusement parks; dinner with Orange County Fire Authority Station 21 firefighters; and a Blue Buoy Swim School lessons package. Members of the National Drowning Prevention Alliance Board of Directors, Mary Ann Downing, Maureen Williams, Matt Payne, and Cindy and Johnny Johnson were in attendance.  Safety-oriented displays showcased information from the Orange County Fire Authority, the Rialto Fire Department, and other representation from the water safety industry.  CARE Ambulance also placed its “Safer 3” vehicle on display throughout the event.

Members of the Aquachievers, a pilot program for young special needs swimmers that is hoped to become a Special Olympics swim team, also participated in the Swim for Life Safety Challenge.  Jointly hosted by the Tustin Assistance League and Blue Buoy Swim School, the Aquachiever’s first six-week session is now underway and is receiving overwhelming support and participation.

“It was so gratifying to see the show of support that the Safety Challenge received by members of the community as well as the water safety industry,” said Johnny Johnson, president and founder of the Swim for Life Foundation and owner of Blue Buoy Swim School.  “We can see that water safety is top-of-mind for lots of folks, which is great.  Although it is vital to remain vigilant around water at all times of the year, the warmer months make it especially important to remind swimmers of all ages how to stay safer around the water.”

All donations support ongoing education of the “Safer 3,” an internationally-recognized water safety campaign developed by the Swim for Life Foundation that offers a multi-layered approach to drowning prevention that references safer water, safer kids and safer response.  The Safer 3 message has received support from the Orange County Fire Authority and the National Drowning Prevention Alliance, in addition to national-level endorsements from the United States Swim School Association, Pampers, McDonald’s, FedEx and Toyota.

See great pics from the event here.

For further information about the Swim for Life Foundation, please call the Swim for Life Foundation at 714-227-6000.

Media Contact:

Kristin Scheithauer     (714) 336-0920
kscheithauer@cox.net