Blake Collingsworth, Rotarian from Lincoln, Nebraska, was the speaker for the October 8 meeting. He talked about his experience losing his son to drowning and the resulting book project and training programs to teach children how to stay safe in the water.
Collingsworth lost his two year-old son, Josh, in June 2008 to a home swimming pool accident. The family thought children would be safe around their yard because they had it fenced in, security cameras, and the pool was covered when not in use. During a moment when there were no adults near the pool, Joshua was able to get to the pool through a back door to the house and fell into the pool. Collingsworth wrote a children's book to cover what children should be taught: only go into the pool when an adult accompanies the child; learn how to turn to swim to the side of a pool or turn over to face up in a floating position. The book is called "Josh the Baby Otter" and is about a young otter who learns these lessons about water safety. After receiving support from the National Drowning Prevention Alliance, the book was published and made available. Collingsworth's Rotary Club made it available to all kindergarten children in their local school system, and soon other Rotary Clubs were doing similarly. Now about 300 clubs in the US and elsewhere are distributing copies to school children, about 60,000 throughout the U.S. per year. Collingsworth's program is also working with swimming instructors to teach young children how to turn over to their backs to float more safely, or to swim to the side of a pool to get themselves out of trouble. Soon Collingsworth will be forming a Rotary Action Group (RAG) to promote this anti-drowning program.