Water Safety for Kids

With National Water Safety Month approaching in May, The ZAC Foundation – a nonprofit organization dedicated to water safety advocacy and education – will launch its inaugural ZAC Camp on Monday at the Boys & Girls Club of Greenwich to teach children the importance of water safety. 

Throughout the week, the ZAC Foundation will be joined at the ZAC Camp by its local partners, including four-time Olympic Gold Medalist Janet Evans, Boys & Girls Clubs of Greenwich and Stamford members, Greenwich Fire and Police departments, Greenwich Emergency Medical Services, and The American Red Cross. The program is to become an annual event.

Hosted and named in honor of 6-year-old Zachary Archer Cohn who drowned from a pool drain entrapment in his backyard swimming pool, the ZAC Camp is a weeklong sessions of swimming instruction, classroom lessons and various hands-on activities to engage more than 100 campers from the Stamford and Greenwich clubs. The ZAC Foundation was established in 2008 by Brian and Karen Cohn to further water safety education and advocacy.

“We are thrilled to partner with The ZAC Foundation to extend water safety education to our members and their families through the ZAC Camp,” said Boys & Girls Club of Greenwich Executive Director Bob DeAngelo. “Parents can sometimes be anxious to teach their children about water safety because they themselves may have never learned essential water skills like swimming. The ZAC Camp reassures parents by teaching them how to create a family water safety plan while educating kids about staying safe around the water in a fun and engaging way,” added DeAngelo.

Throughout the week, Olympic swimmers Janet Evans and Rowdy Gaines, U.S. Rep. Jim Himes (D-4) of Cos Cob, and Connecticut State senators L. Scott Frantz of Riverside, and Carlo Leone of Stamford, will participate in various camp activities alongside Boys & Girls Club volunteers, first-responders and ZAC Foundation supporters.

“I’m honored by the outpouring of support by local organizations, volunteers and first-responders to advance The ZAC Foundation’s mission to educate, not only families here in Connecticut but also across the country, about the importance of water safety,” said Karen Cohn, Zachary’s mother and co-founder of The ZAC Foundation. “Through the ZAC Camps, we are working diligently with our wonderful partners to ensure that what happened to Zachary never happens to another child.”

Every year, approximately 760 children (14 and under) die as a result of accidental drowning. And more than 60 percent of those children are under age 5.  Drowning occurs quickly and silently. Once submerged children cannot cry out for help.  They can lose consciousness within two minutes, and permanent brain damage occurs after four to six minutes. Though thousands of accidents happen each year, many are preventable if certain water safety measures are taken.

Greenwich Fire Chief Peter J. Siecienski echoed the purpose for water safety education. “When you respond to water related accidents, such as Zachary’s, it’s heartbreaking because they are often preventable," Siecienski said. "We know what accidents can do to a family and we are so grateful that The ZAC Foundation is teaching children and their families how to stay safe.”

The Greenwich ZAC Camp is the first program in a national campaign led by the Foundation to educate children about water safety through community engagement and education. 

The week will conclude with a closing awards ceremony on Friday at 11:30 a.m.

For more information, log on to www.thezacfoundation.com.