SWIMBABES™ NATIONAL CAMPAIGN FOR INFANT SWIM SAFETY

n 1982 Jackie began a dialogue with Dr. Warren Guntheroff pediatric cardiologist and pediatric head at the University of Washington about the possibilities of studies being done on Infant Swim Safety. This dialogue over a 10-year period resulted in SWIMBABES effort 10 years later in 1992 to start a

National Campaign for Infant Swim Safety Research.

SWIMBABES kicked off the campaign effort with a show in Portland called "Our Never Ending

Stories". This campaign calling for research has been under the guidance and support of

Dr. Warren Guntheroff and Dr. Phillip Spiers Epidemiologist. During this time SWIMBABES also raised $10,000 for the Research Effort and gained support for this effort from The National Swim School

Association.

SWIMBABES also kicked off the National effort producing the First National Infant Aquatic Show, "Our Small World. The show was hosted by NSSA at our National Conference in 1993 In Buena Vista

California and included 5 NSSA schools and 100 toddlers in performance. The show also

Introduced all of the officers and board of NSSA who were present at the Conference.

SWIMBABES followed up this effort by participating in a pilot study in an effort to establish protocols for researchers at the university. SWIMBABES also participated in a National Survey put out by NSSA on Safety training for families. All of these efforts seemed to have come to a standstill with the

difficulty of establishing the numbers needed for the controls that would make it scientific based.

In October 1997 SWIMBABES and Jackie joined WORLD AQUATIC BABIES CONGRESS and were

honored as the first charter member in Oaxaca Mexico. This membership opened up the world to us and has brought us into contact with Researchers and Doctors as well as Aquatic Educators

Worldwide. Now we are communicating with individuals and organizations World Wide to try to wake the US up to the fact that we have a drowning problem here. All of this comes at a time when the

problem becomes more complicated with the AAP's warnings not to teach babies to swim under age 5.

SWIMBABES has continued the Campaign to Stop Infant Toddler Drowning by Attracting

Media to help us communicate our message. This campaign has been targeting instructors and

families alike to educate them in safe practices and training for infants and children.

Currently we are bringing in both National and International leaders in Aquatics in a team effort to

provide resources to families and instructors. We have just completed our first international Instructor training Workshop bringing two continents together with Judy Watts from Australia. Judy and Jackie were introduced as two experts in the field of Infant Swim and dialogued during this workshop on a 1 hour Radio Talk Show with Portland's KPDQ's popular Radio Host Dr. Steve.

SWIMBABES is now working on an educational Video to help educate all professionals related to the health and safety fields on the importance of training families in safety precautions as well as training children in much need life saving skills and poolside safety behavior.

We have many community influencers who support SWIMBABES™ and have been lending their

support to our effort to get the message out. That Message is the fact that Parent education and

training infants and toddlers water safety skills and poolside safety saves lives. One of the Best known and most influential of these people are Clyde Drexler who gifted our program with a free endorsement to help the cause. Virginia Newman, founder of the WABC and Steve Graves Founding Executive

Director of the National Swim School Association also President of The World Aquatic Babies

Congress have also graciously given us their support as well. These Individuals represent bodies of