FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: June 12, 2019

URGENT–39 TEXAS CHILDREN HAVE ALREADY BEEN LOST TO FATAL DROWNINGS THIS YEAR – AT LEAST 5 IN CENTRAL TEXAS!

June 12, 2019 – Austin, Texas – It’s only the beginning of summer but Texas has already lost 39 children to fatal drownings this year- including 3 children in Travis County and 2 in Williamson County in the last month. Many more have survived non-fatal drowning incidents. Children across Texas have drowned in backyard pools, apartment pools, community pools, hotel pools, bathtubs, ponds, hot tubs, rivers, lakes, beaches and even buckets. Last year, 91 Texas children fatally drowned, the equivalent of 2 FULL SCHOOL BUSES of children. These drownings are fast, silent and preventable and we must do something NOW to stop drownings.

June 13th marks the 11th Anniversary of the drowning of 4 year old Austinite, Colin Holst in a life guarded pool. Colin’s Hope was formed in his honor with the simple mission to raise water safety awareness to prevent children from drowning. Colin’s Hope, a Central Texas-based nonprofit organization is a trusted water safety and drowning prevention resource locally, statewide and nationally.

Drowning is the number 1 cause of unintentional death for children under 5 and a leading cause of death for ages 1-14. However, drowning is preventable. Colin’s Hope challenges Central Texans to visit www.colinshope.org/quiz to take their online water safety quiz and become a Water Guardian for Texas children. Just as we teach our children not to touch a hot stove, or to wear seatbelts or look both ways before crossing the street- we MUST teach them to be safer around water. We must also equip parents and caregivers with the knowledge they need to keep their families safe around water all year round by promoting/sharing our resources.

Jeff Holst, Colin’s dad and Co-founder of Colin’s Hope states, “We now know that drowning is preventable. We chose to honor Colin’s life every day by helping prevent other families from going through what we did. No one should ever lose a child to something that is preventable. We want to remind families to please be safe around water. NO ONE is DROWNPROOF- regardless of your socioeconomic level, your race, your ethnicity, your age or even your swimming ability.”

Alissa Magrum, Executive Director of Colin’s Hope states, “This message is for everyone! We must talk about water safety with our children when they are very young. We must do simple things like assigning an undistracted adult to always watch children – even when we do not plan to be in or around water, learning to swim, WEARING U.S. Coast Guard approved life jackets, installing multiple barriers around water and learning CPR. Let’s create a revolution of Water Guardians by having a conversation changing our behavior to be safer around water. We can prevent drowning incidents and save lives. Not One More child should drown.”

Colin’s Hope Contact
Alissa Magrum, Executive Director
(512) 294-3910
[email protected]