Josh the Otter comes to Key West for Water Safety Awareness Month
During National Water Safety Awareness Month, Key West Sunrise Rotary’s Josh the Otter program is delivering life-saving messages and copies of the “Josh the Baby Otter” book during interactive presentations at preschools and kindergartens.
On Thursday, Josh the Otter (AKA Key West Sunrise Rotary Past President Ron Demes) entertained prekindergarten students at the Basilica School of Saint Mary Star of the Sea by leading the Learn to Float dance and a pledge to be careful around bodies of water. Visits are also planned to Sigsbee Charter School and the Sigsbee Child Development Center.
On May 2, Otter Spotter Day, the Southernmost Otter stopped by Atlantic Targets and Marine Operations at NAS Key West to discuss water safety on the Navy research vessel Retriever and also went to the Army Special Forces Underwater Operations School and the Southernmost Point.
Rotary International partners with the Joshua Collingsworth Memorial Foundation to spread the important water safety message worldwide. The program’s namesake was two-and-a-half years old when he drowned in his family pool in Lincoln, Nebraska. His father wrote the book to connect literacy and water safety through simple messages such as learn to float, swim with a buddy, and never go near a body of water without an adult.
According to the Center for Disease Control and Prevention, drowning is the number one cause of unintentional death for children ages one to four, and the second leading cause of unintentional death for all children ages one to fourteen in the US. Minority children are almost three times more likely to drown. The Safe Kids Coalition found 58 percent of parents do not consider drowning a threat to their children.
For more information, visit www.joshtheotter.org.