Speaker 0 00:00:04 Welcome to the NDPA water safety podcast, where we learn about people's water, safety story. And now your host, Adam <inaudible> and Laura Metro. All right. Hi Laura. Hi Adam.
Speaker 1 00:00:21 Uh, happy Midsummer. Yes. It's hard to believe. It's fifth summer.
Speaker 2 00:00:27 I feel like my summer hasn't begun
Speaker 1 00:00:28 Yet. I know. Well, I, you know, I, I always set out like, in this long list of things I'm going to achieve by the end of the summer, I'm guilty of it. Cause I'm a college professor and I'm like, you know, I have the, the, I guess free time during the summer, even though, you know, I work for in DPA families United do a lot of things, but, um, you know, I'm like, even like this summer, I'm like, oh, it's great. I have nothing to do with the university. I'm gonna have all this time to get everything done. And like, I'm looking at my calendar going like, oh my gosh, it's like middle of July and I'm panicking. And
Speaker 2 00:00:56 We also don't really schedule in that time. You should take in the summer to actually kind of relax and like, you know, prepare for the rest of the year. Yeah, we forget that. Yeah. Take,
Speaker 1 00:01:05 Take a vacation. Yeah. You know, I, I got to tell you real quick Lord, before we get into our discussion today, um, I really have enjoyed the break from travel. The COVID presented and you know, as much as it's broken my heart to miss, to water safety conferences and to really just not see everyone. And it's kind of, it's kind of a weird mix over, I think everyone's experience with over COVID is I've never felt more connected and in tune with everyone else. But I also, haven't seen everyone in like 15 months and you know, I think once the conference kind of circuit starts up again in aquatics this fall, we're going to start seeing everyone. Um, I gotta tell you though, I am not looking forward to getting back on an airplane. I can't wait to hug everyone. See everyone in person it's that whole airport experience. I'm just not ready for it. Again,
Speaker 2 00:01:53 I have been traveling a few times actually since, and I actually welcomed the experience cause I was just as excited to sort of get out of Dodge. Now that could have something to do with where I live for anyone who's listening. I live about five miles outside of Washington DC. So this whole experience of both politically and you know, the pandemic being, I could walk to NIH, you know, I'm in Fowchee, we trust, you know, people around here. My mother actually, when she was working in NH, worked for Fowchee, you know, so it's just, it was so close to home. There was, you know, I like to say they call DC the swamp, you know, and there's a reason for that. Okay. I had friends in town from Miami last week and they were like, this is worse than Miami air. They're like the air is so thick.
Speaker 2 00:02:35 And the way that I described sort of the area here the past year was that the air was thick with anger, anxiety, tension, fear. And it wasn't until we, I stepped out of it. We had gone to North Carolina for a vacation with some other families that I was like, I almost felt like I could breathe a little deeper. And I realized what I was around all time. So, and just even being, I don't have to watch the news. I can just stand in the line at CVS and hear all of the news. I need to hear really. I mean, people are talking about this and on top of it too, around here, you know, people's families, their jobs depend on, you know, who's in the white house, you know, it's, it's not just about their opinions, their ideals sometimes it's about how they're supporting their family.
Speaker 2 00:03:21 So it gets was really, really tough. And so for me, the travel and also being involved in this work and, you know, you talked about your Lecom families, United and professional. You know, me, I do marketing spirit. I do CPR party also. And, you know, to be really involved in those things. But I can say I was kind of glad to take a break on CPR party as you know, because I've been wanting to sort of restructure that and look into some non-fatal. So there was really some things I think, I think everybody experienced a very extreme sense of relief or almost I got to get back on lots of different topics. And, you know, we're seeing that same, I think, extreme, which is, you know, why we wanted to have this particular podcast with just me and you. We're seeing that extreme in our space also in a lot of different ways.
Speaker 2 00:04:06 And you know, some that are a little bit scary. Um, but you know, that's kind of one of the reasons why we said we need to get on and kind of have a current discussion of, Hey, how, where are things now? Um, and a little bit of a PSA, you warning people a little bit, what to watch out for. Um, and, and kind of just give people an update on what we're seeing coming in, you know, like not Vera, some verified data, but just kind of anecdotal data things that we're starting to see, you know?
Speaker 1 00:04:34 Yeah. And, you know, it's, it's so interesting at this point in the summer because I think everyone or not everyone, but a lot of people think that we track drownings on a daily basis. And we do to a certain extent because there is some data that we have at our fingertips accessible that is just generally available to the public. And a lot of that data comes from certain states and, um, you know, and it's great that, you know, Texas, Florida, um, Arizona, we're able to get more immediate data, especially for under 18 year-olds of, of what's happening in drowning. But, you know, our theme of the podcast is people's water safety story. And I got to tell you, Laura, this summer is writing a terrifying water safety story. Um, I know, you know, it really last summer, I mean, I, I was really concerned going into COVID.
Speaker 1 00:05:25 Um, you know, with parents being home, you know, distracted with work, kids being home really anticipated a rise in the drowning rates. And, you know, we still don't have the full CDC database available to us for 2020. And that'll be some time before we get access to that. But, um, you know, I I'll talk about Florida and we're going to spend a portion of our discussion looking at Florida this morning. Um, you know, for Florida, they do release their childhood driving numbers pretty, pretty close to instantly. Um, and through the department of family and children's, and, you know, I was breathing a sigh of relief. You know, every driving is too many drownings, um, especially in the state of Florida, but, you know, Florida ended up with 65 fatal under 18 drownings in 2019. And they only spiked up to 68 last year, which I think, you know, again, 68, too many, but I think we were all anticipating was going to be a lot worse.
Speaker 2 00:06:23 Yeah. We thought that the spike would be far, far worse. Um, you know, and again, we're not able to really analyze a lot of that data yet. We don't have all the official data. Um, you know, I think one of the things that we did notice too, is that is this really big increase in people, on open-water people using non-motorized watercraft, um, people being around and outside, um, in our national parks. I mean, actually people don't know this, but the number one cause of death in our national parks is drowning. You know, it's not like you're going to put up a huge fence in Acadia national park, you know, I mean, you take some risks when you go there. And most people don't know that they know that they should leave no trace. They know they should not leave their trash, you know, but they don't know, Hey, this is a major drowning issue. Um, and a lot of cases and our country flocked to our monuments flocks to our outdoors. And again, you know, it was off the charts, the sales of these non-motorized watercraft. So then we get into the discussion of life vests, you know, that should not necessarily be an optional purchase when you were buying a watercraft. You know,
Speaker 1 00:07:31 I want to point out there, Laura too. And I've had this discussion with a couple of agencies this summer is I think we almost need to split open-water into two categories because I don't know about you, but someone brought this to my attention and this was not my, um, my true intention when I was saying this, but I was talking about open water and some of the things we've been seeing and they construed that I was talking about boating and boat. Boating is an important aspect for safety and open water. Um, you know, we, we spend a lot of time talking about life jacket, safe, boating, operations, things like that. Um, but at the end of the day where we're seeing a lot of drownings right now is open water swimming, um, open water swimming. Yep. Yep. And, you know, I, I think what it is, you know, and again, this is somewhat speculation, but we have been able to kind of look at the data, have conversations with people around the country and what's happening and the age groups, not surprising a lot of times, it's those young adult teenage males going into situations where it's not necessarily a designated or designated safe swimming area.
Speaker 1 00:08:41 So they go into these situations, there's not immediate rescue available. Maybe you don't know what the bottom looks like, how deep it is, are there currents? Um, and I, you know, no one goes out intentionally to this accident happen to them. But, you know, I remember earlier this summer, I got a call from some folks up in Massachusetts, in public health who were ringing the alarm bell that, you know, and it was, it was these open-water settings and particularly teenage males and they saw a spike early on. And if you saw just last week, um, we shared on NDPA social media, the governor of Massachusetts is now proposing additional legislation on what constitutes a safe swimming area and is taking proactive steps in the state. And honestly, I applaud Massachusetts because they've recognized there's a problem. And they D they, I'm sure there's a political debate going on about the legislation as any piece of legislation at some level of political debate, but they saw the problem in their taking action and yeah.
Speaker 2 00:09:40 Oh, it's, you know, it's interesting too. And I don't know if this has any, just sort of throwing it out there. I don't know if it's anything necessarily to do with an, you know, in the Northern states, in my experience, you know, my family goes to Maine or from DC, you know, one of the things is when they have heat waves, you know, the open water is cold. And so it's so refreshing. Right. And so I, I bet they are seeing, um, we, there was just two weeks ago or so a huge heat wave that went all the way up into Maine. I mean, you're in your mid nineties, you know, I mean, this is not debt like necessarily typical. Um, and you know, but the water, the open water is just, it's cold. It's refreshing. So I do think they're probably seeing a lot of that with the increase in temperatures as well, you know, and I mean, uh, again, I'm right by the Potomac river at, we see this, these rescues all the time, the fire station that's right by the river. I mean, they have all the, you know, the equipment, you know, to go and do the water rescues. I mean, and what people don't realize is that the Potomac river has major currents underneath. It looks very calm on top. There are major currents underneath. And, um, I mean, I have to admit, like, I think, I think I did it once or twice, you know, the cliff jumping and this stuff into it. And it looks very benign and until it's not
Speaker 1 00:10:57 Well, exactly. And I mean, it's, you know, in many ways so different, but in many ways, so same as the backyard pool, um, looks calm or fashioning, uh, very tranquil peaceful, but it can be a trap, um, and really catch people off guard. And, you know, I want to keep this discussion going, but I want to go back to Florida because I am ringing an alarm bell here, folks. Um, I am really, I don't often say I'm worried. I am scared to death of the numbers we're already seeing in Florida this summer. Well, actually this whole year, um, you know, I ran a comparison and I have some of my interns going into the data set and actually pulling out some stuff to see if we can do some further analysis, but, you know, going back to, um, 2009, um, I have their data pulled up for 2009 here.
Speaker 1 00:11:49 They had 76, uh, fatal drownings under the age of 18. Um, the most that they've saw since 2009 was 2010, where there was 92, um, you know, last year, um, you know, 20 18, 20 15 were pretty high. There's a few years that hit into the low to mid eighties. Uh, 2018 was the second highest at 88. Um, you know, 68 in total last year, 65 in 2019. And I know these are numbers, but these, each individual numbers are lives. And these are children under the age, under the age of 18. What is scaring me to death? Laura is we are only, um, about midway through July. So just, you know, little over 13, out of 24 ways through the year, we're at 58, uh, child drownings in Florida,
Speaker 2 00:12:36 They haven't gotten into main the main, main vacation month of the year, which is the last two weeks in August around there either three weeks, you know, and again, for us, we've always fought this mean, not fought. It, it is what it is. Come August 1st, you get all the back to school messaging is what people are done like done with the summer, you know, and, but the summer is not done, you know, and that is, you know, uh, people are on their vacations. They're in unfamiliar areas, they're renting houses with pools and they're not familiar pool owners. They're at the beach, they're enjoying themselves. I mean, record numbers of people are out enjoying water, which is amazing and wonderful, but if it's not enjoyed safely, as you, you know, we're already seeing this and it's, it is, it is terrifying, which is one of the reasons why we wanted to come on and do that. Yes.
Speaker 1 00:13:22 Well, and you know, one thing that I look at Florida right now, and I, you know, we've been going through some of the environments of where these drownings are happening and, um, most of them are backwards. It pools, most of them, you know, there's a few and a handful that are open water, ponds, canals. Um, what we would typically see in Florida, um, what's interesting is, and I don't know, you know, this is, I have some interns going back and running low or coding the location of where these drownings are, the environments where these drownings took place. So we can kind of compare to previous years, but, um, you know, there's some Airbnbs, um, but a lot of them, you know, and I, again, I can't really tell based on the narrative description they provide with each of these incidents that was at grandma and grandpa's pool, was it, you know, was the family truly on vacation?
Speaker 1 00:14:08 Was that their own backyard pool, but the words that keep coming up with these drownings in Florida, and I want to say out of the 58, it was probably like 48 to 50 of them were backyard family swimming pools. You know, that could be at an Airbnb that could be grandma and grandpa's house. But, um, that is the environment. Now we don't want to be clear here. These numbers don't include adults and we don't have access right now to the adult numbers in Florida, through total aquatic programming and our partnership with them. We can get some initial trend data on adults, which is alarming around the country to say the least. But you know, working in Florida is official data for childhood fatalities with drowning right now, I am scared to death,
Speaker 2 00:14:50 You know, and lot of times, not always, but like you said, a lot of times if adults can't swim, their children, sometimes can't swim as well. Um, and
Speaker 3 00:14:59 You know, uh, uh,
Speaker 2 00:15:02 What I like to tell people is usually these events are not occurring while people are actively enjoying the pool. Okay. So w most people think, well, I watch my kids were at the pool. This is happening when mom is tending to one child, there's another child. Or, you know, she's just taking something out of the oven. You know, this is happening in the normal course of someone's day and one or more layers of protection. If they are there have failed or there aren't layers there. And, you know, that's why we can't encourage people enough. It's not one layer of protection. It's like every single layer that you could possibly put there, because kids are smart. And the problem is too, they grow and they learn new skills, unbeknownst to us, you know, I probably shouldn't have this recorded, but I knew my son could crawl when he fell down the stairs.
Speaker 2 00:15:55 Can you, her that story? I, he literally crawled and then it was boom, boom, blah, blah, blah. And I looked and he was okay, but he tumbled down the stairs. And I didn't know, he could travel that far. I mean, it was, there was two adults in, in that room when this happened. You know, it's not that I wasn't watching him. I, you don't know exactly when your child's going to walk. You don't know exactly when your child is going to get just tall enough to open that door. You don't know when you're like they're learning and growing at such a rapid rate that it's not that you're not watching them, you know, but the more that we can put these layers of protection in place, we'll give you time. And then hopefully we'll ring an alarm or something like that. You know, I cannot stress this enough that it's just really important to have these multiple layers. It's most of these parents are not negligent parents. They aren't, they just, you know, might've gone to the dishwasher or gone to get their other child up from a nap.
Speaker 1 00:16:55 You know, Laura, you just brought up, you know, um, take tumbling down the stairs. You know, you hear that accident happening. You can't prevent it at that stage, but at least you hear it and, you know, oh crap, something happened when you look at drowning, the child's gonna sneak away just like that incident, but silent, fast, 20 to 60 seconds, not going to be heard. And now, you know, again, I've been stressing this, you know, because I think there's also a little bit of confusion around surviving the drowning. And, you know, I've had to have a number of these conversations and clear up some confusion, um, as of late. And one of the things that I realized is, you know, we talk a lot about survival rates and when the victim is, is removed from the water, but what I find is missed, I don't know if it's just not making the right connection is it's not just getting the victim out of the water.
Speaker 1 00:17:55 It's now that that victim is out of the water. You have to call 9 1, 1, you have to hope and pray nine one. One is going to be a quick and fast response. And, you know, I'm sure where you live good chance of that, where I live. We're just rolling the dice that the only ambulance in the county is, uh, uh, you know, on another call right now. And we're not going to be 30 or 45 minutes out from help, but you've also got to start effective quality CPR care to be able to get the response we need to get from this victim. And, um, I don't know if a lot of parents are well-prepared to do something like that. Um, cause again, it's, it's that situation. I mean, and, and I know you've been in this situation where you're, you see your son, you know, pulled out of the pool, um, not breathing, you know, in this traumatic state and, you know, in your situation by standards and your friends were there to assist, but I can't imagine, uh, you know, a parent coming out to the pool and tragically finding their child and being expected to respond in the way that we talk about,
Speaker 2 00:18:55 I did actually try to go in and the person, the bystander there was actually thought maybe I was doing it too hard because I was so, and it was, I kind of said, let me do this. And, you know, I mean, so, but I do think it is sort of a fight or flight response that you have, whether you act, um, you know, I just, I am a big proponent of, if you have any training at all, you'll have some of this in the back of your mind. If you have no training, you're not going to be able to act, but if you have any training at all, you know, you'll have something there, um, to kick in. Um, I think the other big thing that's important to mention, and I say, this is that, you know, the, the spectrum of surviving and alive is very big.
Speaker 2 00:19:38 And you know, our, when we, when I did the CPR party work, I want people to be alive and thrive. I want them to walk out of the hospital the next day or so, you know, and the different, or versus being a, you know, having permanent brain damage and being in living that way for the rest of their lives. That to me is not surviving. You know, especially if you're a child and now look at, I mean, you wonder, in my opinion, you wonder why there's not a lot of really stuff out there about non-fatal because the people we're dealing with children with brain damage, don't really have a lot of time to be advocates for this, right. They're dealing with multiple daily therapy, possibly bankruptcy, you know, who knows what's happened with their insurance company. And then, you know, it's just, their whole lives are upside down and will be until the end of time, then you bring in alcoholism, substance abuse, uh, PTSD CPT at GSD, you bring in everything that comes along with something.
Speaker 2 00:20:41 Then we, we're not even talking about the siblings and what happens to them. You know, I mean, this is a literal ripple effect that goes through the family, the marriage, the community, you know, and again, what if this happened at grandma's house? What if this happened with friends watching? I mean, it is absolutely the most invasive thing to have this happen to you and your world around you. And it affects every single aspect and area of your life negatively period. And I know that from experience and you know, and that is the central drive behind this for me. And the fact that my son did make a miraculous recovery. So I was able to dedicate some time and felt the obligation to do so. So for people we're not trying to scare the living crap out of people, we're actually trying to tell you, there are ways to prevent this. There are ways to, to protect from this. And there are also, if this happens, there are ways to, to be a participant in this outcome being a good
Speaker 1 00:21:46 One. Yeah. You know, Laura, that made me think, and I, I got stuck on this thought while you were talking is, you know, I said, that's 58 fatal childhood drownings in Florida. That doesn't include non-fatal
Speaker 2 00:21:59 No, the five to eight pedals per, per one death.
Speaker 1 00:22:05 Yeah. And that, see then that right there just shows how large this problem is right now and continues to be a large problem. And I try to remind people every time we talk about statistics that, you know, and I have to do this myself and I I've, I've said this pretty much on every podcast, but for those of you that can't see I'm holding up the families United, not one more story collection. I keep these on my desk to remind myself every day, this is a number, but it represents these lives. Um, and families like them. Um, you know, Laura, one thing I want to touch on as part of our discussion is what do we do about it? You know, we, we, we talk so much, I mean, um, health prevention, we're going to be out of here all day. We, yeah, we, we might end up being here all day, but, you know, I, the reason I asked that is, you know, I've been doing a lot of thought around this because there's drowning is such a complex problem. I mean, a lot of people think, oh, it's, it's drowning. You know, you put ups, you know, get the kids to learn, to swim and do this and do that. And problem solved. What w you know, I've spent years thinking about this and I still don't have a solution. And I keep coming back to the fact that, you know,
Speaker 2 00:23:20 We have a solution. The solution is, he's like, oh God, what's she going to say, look at it. I mean, the solution is the solution is if we're being Frank, we all have to work together. Period. We cannot in any way, double efforts, we don't have time. We're, you know that again, we've said this so many times, you said there was 58 so far in Florida, just under eighteens. So let me clarify for every single person listening or watching 58 families had a child die. 58 families had a teeny little casket or something had a ch I, my, I have, my hairs are standing up on my arms, 58 families. That's just Florida. That's just this year so far. Okay. There's no room anymore for everyone, this whole space. If there's something about the water safety and drowning prevention space that I've seen. And I would, I would, I would compare it a little bit also to breast cancer, the, the, the passion and the love and the drive and the desire to stop this, you know, the, the selflessness of so many people that work in this space, you know, I mean, I have to mention, you know, my friend Kelly, who, you know, she's in the water, she's the person that Kelly Rogers is a person who I had trained clay after his accident.
Speaker 2 00:24:54 And she's a very big supporter of our program and everything else that we do. And it's people like her, they're literally, she is in the water every single day in a wetsuit, like trying to run our business. You know? I mean, how do you run a business when you're in the water every day? And all she wants to do is get more hours in the day. She can be in the water more so you can save more people. But then when does she answer the emails? When does she run the bill? You know, and I'm saying all these things, these very specific nitty-gritty things, because this is real life, and this is what happens. So if you know, people have to understand that the way we solve this problem is we honestly check our egos at the door. We, we recognize that we feel very passionately about our piece of this puzzle and that our piece is valid, but may not be valid for everyone's personal family values or their checkbook. And we have to recognize these things and say, all right, so here's my piece. It might not work for this person, but you know what, maybe that person's piece can work for them. The more we start working together, which has vastly improved as you know, over the years, I mean, the togetherness and the partnership has exponentially. I mean, beyond a shadow of doubt, exponentially increased.
Speaker 1 00:26:16 I never thought we'd be where we are today with everyone coming together, working together. And, you know, yeah. You know, my point here, Laura is we all do have a role to play because there isn't one singular solution, one golden ticket that is going to, if we implement this, it will drop drownings to zero. Um, and, and, you know, here's why I like put some context behind this. You know, we often hear, and I've, I've been on the record saying drowning is drowning, right drowning once you're in the water, drowning, drowning, the problem is it's the lead up factors, the variables behind the drowning, um, the layers of protection that failed the environment, the response, the first response, there are so many moving variables that in, in honestly, you know, one variable doesn't fail and succeeds and the child never makes it to the water, or, you know, a teenager, you know, thinks about, you know, this is not a safe swimming area. You know, we should probably go somewhere where, you know, what is a designated swimming area, you know, wearing a life jacket, making these decisions, you know? And when we look at, you know, the massive problem, and I, you know, I don't want to say, you know, well, Massachusetts just has an open water problem in Florida just has a cool problem, but there are different characteristics per state, right?
Speaker 2 00:27:40 Based on their geography, based on their temperatures, based on, you know, what people do in those states more often, right? I mean, it, it is, it varies per state. And I actually think that's kind of cool because people in each state can come up with their own unique water safety plans. And that's why we do need warriors everywhere. Okay. Why we do need these people to do this. And I, you know, encourage people who have kids looking for community service hours, kids looking to do a really cool different project to write their college essay. I'm telling you, I don't think there's a lot of people writing college essays about their water safety project. So go and build a life jacket, loaner station with your local fire department or your local boys, uh, boys and girls clubs, or your local boy Scouts and girl Scouts go and do that. These are actionable things that you can do that are unique to your area. Well,
Speaker 1 00:28:31 We need those things, but we also need coordination at the local level. And I mean, that's, if every community would form a coalition, um, you know, that involves all of the key stakeholders in that community, the aquatics, you know, people, the local swim folks, the pool managers, the lifeguards, the fire departments, the emergency response, your local public health, your state, public health officials, um, your local politicians, your, you know, city borough council, or township supervisors, or these are people that need to be involved in the discussion. Because again, I go back to the fact that all of these puzzle pieces, you know, yes, a life jacket, loaner station is important. Yes, swim lessons are important, but we need to make sure those boxes are being checked in every community around the country. Because if we don't have that one golden ticket, that one thing that every community could do across the country and are instantly going to see a change here, then it's that multiple factor of we'd have to make sure all these layers of protections are in place.
Speaker 2 00:29:33 Where in life do we get the one golden ticket other than in the Willy Wonka movie, we don't,
Speaker 4 00:29:40 We don't get it. You know, where in life
Speaker 2 00:29:43 Dave is there, I'm sitting there thinking to myself, why are we expecting there to be one thing? Or why are we expecting? I can't think, I mean, again, we'll go back to cancer. I mean, for goodness sakes, right? How long have we been battling cancer? And yes, major strides. People live on people even live on with death sentences, you know, nowadays, but we're still dying of cancer in some cases, right? So we, why are we expecting a golden ticket? Why aren't we recognizing that this is the way life is? You know, if we look at mental health, if we look at these different things, there's never one thing you can take, uh, prescription medications. That's not going to solve your problem. Totally. You need to do, um, therapy. You need to do, um, exercise. You need to eat well to treat all the other parts of your body and your mind.
Speaker 2 00:30:36 Why are we looking for one thing? There is, like we said earlier, there is a place for all of us, all of our passion, all of our, all of our ideas, curriculums products, places that work in this space. And the more and more that we come together because of the hundreds and hundreds and hundreds of families that have lost children. Because w I mean, I'm talking about just the ones we know of right now, as we speak, who knows, as we've said, we're going to go. And again, whether you believe in climate change or not, let's just say, things are getting a little hotter. Okay. And we also know after COVID that the swimming pool industry has boomed. Okay. Because people said, oh my gosh, well, first of all, they said, we're home. But now they're saying we kind of like being home. We kind of like entertaining with this small group of people.
Speaker 2 00:31:34 You know, we kind of like spending that time with our families, you know, after, after we all got through and didn't kill our children over, COVID, you know, we realized, wow, we kind of liked each other. We like spending time together because he was a shock. You know? I mean, everybody was hurting their kids everywhere else and nothing wrong with it. But, and then, boom, you stopped and you got to know your children. You got to know your, your children got to know their parents. Some good, some bad Adam is very close. We were close friends. Adam was around a lot. And it was also during the NBA virtual conference that my family would just come by and go, Hey Adam, he was in the Metro household. It's not even Dr. Catch marching anymore. Hey Adam. So, you know, my point is, is that we, this is a call to action.
Speaker 2 00:32:25 This particular podcast is a call to action of everyone. Please enjoy the water. Please go out there, enjoy this with your family, enjoy this with your friends. Please be diligent. You can go to our website. We have all the information you'll ever need. And the history of the world on anything that you want, our partners provide everything. Our members provide everything. If you, we don't have what you're looking for, please email me or Adam. And we will absolutely put you in the right direction. We can help you alleviate it. You know, it's not preventable entirely. Just like you could wear a seatbelt. Doesn't mean you're not going to get into a car accident, but we have everything you need just to do a quick look. And I'll say two things on them right before. Cause I know you're waiting to, you know, hold that thought.
Speaker 2 00:33:12 Sometimes it's as simple. You talked about the Airbnbs mark pain. I asked him one time. I said, mark, tell me your number one. Tip. I go, not the ones I can read online. Tell me a number one tip that you'd like to tell me. That's kind of out of the ordinary. And he said, make sure your house number is visible at night. He goes, do you know how many times we've gone on calls? The house number is on the curb. It's painted on the curb and it's trash day. The next day he goes, and we're talking about seconds here. So little tips like that can make the biggest difference. If you're going away this week, this summer to an Airbnb, a VRVO make sure, you know, your address, know the address so you can give 9 1 1 the address it's very important. So these are these little things too, that make the biggest difference, but we please understand. We want you to enjoy the water. We love the water.
Speaker 1 00:34:07 Well, you know, Laura, one thing that I want to really get out there is the fact that each one of us in the water safety space has a role to play here. Um, you know, one of the things that I often look at on the scientific side of what we do is are the interventions working, you know? So are they effective if you know, you want to use that word? Um, we don't know. We don't know a lot of those answers right now. Now I want to say,
Speaker 2 00:34:37 Because you can't tell how many people didn't die based on prevention. It's tough. It, it, it is.
Speaker 1 00:34:45 And either hasn't been a lot of funding for research in this space. Um, we've relied on a lot of international funding. And I think one of the challenging things that I look at, you know, from a solution standpoint is if we don't have the evidence to say, well, these interventions are effective. These ones aren't, then we kind of have to throw the whole kitchen cupboard at the problem, which has kind of been our approach, right? It's like, you know, whatever you do, it's a step in the right direction. And there's a lot of positive progress right now. I mean, you look at the U S action plan and its development. You look at the Zac foundation and some of the community action plan they had done around the country. As you know, some initial testing of these plants, you look at the UN and world and a world drowning prevention day. Um, you look at water safety USA, and the national message that comes out. You look at the growth of NDPA, you look at all amazing things and I'm forgetting a list. So don't like, if I didn't include you in this list, please don't feel like, you know, it's late.
Speaker 2 00:35:44 We can show you actual increase in awareness based on our own social media analytics over the years, we can show engagement. We can show there is we can show that there has been an increased, you know, uptick more so year after year after year in the conversation. So yes, we, there is evidence that we are moving forward in this space.
Speaker 1 00:36:08 You know, one thing I just have to say is the fact that, you know, this problem to me is bigger than any one person, one organization, one program, one, anything. I mean, I don't care if you ended up on the NDPA website or you ended up on the red cross, or you ended up on Joe Schmoe's water safety page on Facebook, I could absolutely care less as long as the, the consumer is getting the information and it's making a difference, correct information. Yeah. That,
Speaker 2 00:36:41 Okay. That's a huge, by the way, we're going to, we're going to wrap this podcast up, but I will throw that out there for the, uh, the text of this podcast, getting the correct information. This is beyond critical as with anything on the inter webs. Okay. You can't trust everything. You see, make sure that you are going to a trusted source. That is actually an expert in this space, or you will fall prey to every Tom Dick and Harry selling their product. You know, I'm not saying that in our space, I'm saying in general, in life, we all know this from shopping on Amazon or doing something different, you know, that we have to make sure. And we've all become, frankly, consumers nowadays are far, far, far more intelligent and smarter as to the advertising efforts or to know, Hey, if I see that stat, like where did it come from?
Speaker 2 00:37:35 Like, you know, did it come from anywhere or is it, is it, was it a stat that was from a, you know, a study of five people sponsored by the company that's selling it, you know, have make sure that you are really looking at where you're getting information, because I know it's scary as a parent, I'm a mom, you see a headline come across, uh, about something, take a deep breath and take a look at it. Okay. And see if it's coming from a very reliable, trusted source, if not, just go to our website, go to red Cross's website, go to some of these other organizations and just fact check it. That's it. Just fact check it.
Speaker 1 00:38:12 Yeah. You know, this is where I want to just end today because this is kind of a gloomy topic is the fact of where we're sitting right now in the year and how scared I, you know, I don't use it lightly. I am a statistics nerd. I, you know, I look at the numbers and I always say one drowning is too many drownings, but it's not often, I'm like, um, I'm ready to set some things on fire here. Um, you know, when I look day in and day out of Florida's numbers, I mean, we're 10 drownings away for matching last year's numbers. And it's middle of July.
Speaker 2 00:38:50 Part of our job people, part of Adam's job is to stay centered, to stay balanced, to stay calm, to have, uh, an overarching, um, aerial view. So we can fight this problem, fight this. Um, when I hear Adam saying, he's worried, I get very concerned because like I said, part of our job is to be able to talk about this horrific, awful disturbing, upsetting. I mean, I'm getting a little emotional issue here. Um, sanely and rationally and calmly, so we can actually fight. Yeah. So we are, we can fight this when I hear that Adam is concerned, it's a call to action.
Speaker 1 00:39:38 Yeah. And I, you know, in you, I think the question is, well, what, what do you want the action to be? And the action is in your community, make a water safety difference. If that is connecting with people, forming that local group and coalition to look at what's happening in your community and see what you can do. Um, whether that's increase availability of swim lessons, making sure people have proper barriers around their pool, educating the general public about layers of protection. Um, you know, one thing I'm going to reach for something here, um, you're working in your communities at the local level, at the state level to make sure that the, you know, things like the international swimming poem spot code get adopted, you know, I'll be the first one to say, what would I love to see this be a little bit stronger in some areas? Absolutely. But I got to tell you the reason that we get behind it, I know if you're just listening, you can't see me holding up the 2018 version of the pool and spa code. Um, this actually mandates for new pools and renovations of pools. And you know, that the pool has to have physical layers of protection where this codes in place. So these are small things that all collectively make a huge impact in the community. And that is what we need to see across this. And you know
Speaker 2 00:40:54 What, we'll make it really easy here. Okay. We have w we have all the access to all the players, all the people, every single, whether they're in our, uh, members of our community or others. Um, you know, we're both Adam and I are involved on a national level and in some cases, international level in this space. So if you want to use, like I'm in, I want to be active, just either email us at, you know, Adam it's either
[email protected] or Laura at <inaudible> dot org, or is it Laura Metro it's Laura dot
Speaker 1 00:41:24 Metro at NDPA emails. You, yeah. Yeah.
Speaker 2 00:41:28 Laura dot
[email protected], or reach out and message on our social media channels. We follow and monitor all of those and have, um, a team that helps us with that as well. We see everything, um, you know, whatever you need, just reach out and say, I want to get involved. Here's my state. You can maybe tell us an area you'd like to get involved in, you know, or something, and we'll make it happen. This is what we do. We connect people. We are the Alliance, and there's a reason for that. We connect people together to do this. And so we can make it really easy on you just come to us, you know, and, and we'll help you out. So the
Speaker 1 00:42:04 Last thing I want to say, Laura is, um, and I know this is probably not the most positive message to leave the podcast on today, but I think it's really critical to have a reminder is don't think just because we're halfway through the summer, the problem's halfway over, you know, we're halfway through the year. And what worries me with Florida is, you know, unlike Massachusetts, where I'm not saying we may not see some drownings in Massachusetts later in the year, but if we're, you know, if the water is cold and the outdoor temperatures are cold people, don't go to the water as frequently. That isn't the case in Florida. So there's just some things we need to look at there and remind ourselves that this is an ongoing year round problem, especially for the Southern states in the country. Um, so I, I, you know, that's a little bit of a negative note to add us on, but I, you know, I think it's important for us to remember because as I say, the call to action is, you know, we all have a role to play no matter what you do in water safety, uh, learning to swim, drowning prevention, um, the public health space, you have a role to play at a, your role you're playing is important.
Speaker 1 00:43:08 Keep doing that, get others in the mix. Um, we have to be a unified front to address this problem. We absolutely have to be. Um, so with that, thanks for joining us for another episode of the NDP water safety podcast, we'll be back with our next episode with another guest. We'll be learning their water safety story until then stay safe, enjoy the summer. And, uh, Laura is always wonderful to always have you as my cohost.
Speaker 3 00:43:32 You too, Adam. All right,
Speaker 1 00:43:34 Everyone, take care, stay safe.
