TAMPA, Fla. (WFLA) — Tremendous Bowl champion Shaq Barrett spoke on the Glazer Youngsters’s Museum on Tuesday about water security.
Barrett’s household went by tragedy in 2023 when his 2-year-old daughter, Arrayah, drowned within the household’s pool.
Since then, he has been advocating for water security. His speech on the kids’s museum got here throughout Nationwide Water Security Month.
The messages he shared included that oldsters can by no means be overprepared on the subject of placing precautions round their pool and that putting your youngster in swimming classes might save their life.
“Talking from the center is simply making it extra actual for folks and saying the place I went fallacious, the place my household went fallacious at — it is perhaps stuff they’re doing proper now,” he stated. “Flip your alarms, your again door alarms again on; be sure you’ve bought all the right gates up, simply little issues like that to assist keep away from a critical tragedy.”
The Barrett household additionally companions with organizations like Glazer and Watermelon Swim to assist increase consciousness.
“No one needs to consider dropping a toddler, dropping family members, or dropping anyone generally,” Barrett stated. “So in the event you might put your self in that thoughts body for a second, you are going to do each security precaution I must keep away from that scenario, as a result of no person needs to be in that place.”
Watermelon Swim teaches swimming and security to each youngster. In keeping with the group, Florida is the primary within the nation, and Hillsborough County is first within the state, for kids below 4 years previous dying because of drowning.
Jennifer Scarpetta introduced her 1-year-old daughter to take heed to the story time and stated she is now contemplating placing her youngster in swimming classes.
“My husband is a grasp diver, so we by no means even thought to place her in swim lessons, however it’s actually nice that they’ve these and so they have like 4 places,” she stated.
Swim classes are one thing Watermelon Swim stated can decrease the chance of drowning by 88%.
“Regardless of all the protection precautions that you’ve got, accidents nonetheless can occur. So be sure you train your youngster how one can survive within the pool for no matter period of time they should survive till any individual can come assist,” Barrett stated.
Watermelon Swim has 5 completely different places within the space and classes for all ages, together with newborns. For extra info, click on here.
