Sunday, May 29, 2011

A Swimming PSA

I try and post this yearly.It is something I never thought about
A friend posted this PSA about children's swimwear, and I never even thought about it before I read it. This makes perfect sense. Please share if you'd like.

These are her words, so I am copy/pasting it exactly how she wrote it:

I do this every year, and it's getting to be that time again... if you've heard it before, pass it on to someone who hasn't.

I used to swim with a Master's team and one night they were doing deep water rescue drills with the lifeguards at the same time as our workout. I was doing laps in the deep end and the trainer tossed a baby doll, clad only in a diaper, into the deep end of the pool.

I peered through the water as the doll sank, and I kid you not, you could *not* see that baby in twelve feet of water. This was in a basically empty pool without a lot of other kids splashing and reflections from light and I was *in* the water and STILL couldn't see it. It was a vague pale blur in the water, and it made me shudder to think that could be a real child down there.

Now on to the PSA - I talked with the trainer afterward and he said he wished there were no such things as kid's swimsuits in white, sea green or turquoise blue, because those colors blend right in to the pool bottom in most pools. He said to dress your kids in the brightest freaking colors you can find - neon pinks, oranges, reds, just for that increased visibility factor in the water.

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