Swimming Lessons Do Not Increase Drowning Risk in Young Children - National Institutes of Health

FINALLY, we are beginning to have some research that supports what many of us in the Learn to Swim world have believed for years. Swim Lessons do impact a child's behavior and are a factor in the fight against children drowning. The National Institutes of Health have released a study that states:

"Providing very young children with swimming lessons appears to have a protective effect against drowning and does not increase childrens' risk of drowning"

Kids Climbing Mt. Kilimanjaro, Africa

I spent some time last week with a pretty impressive 7th grader named Max. I got to know Max when he and his sister first started at our swim school several years ago. Max is in a new middle school this year but as a sixth grader he was president of the student body for his grade school. Remember, I said president of the entire school not just his class. Max and some of his friends and parents have been training and working out here in Phoenix for the last eight months in preparation for a climb of Mt Kilimanjaro in Africa this coming June.

Mt. Kilimanjaro, located in Tanzania, Africa rises to a height of 19,330 feet! For those of us who have hiked in Arizona or even climbed some of the "Fourteeners" (mountains of 14,000 feet in height) in Colorado, 19,000++ feet is pretty high. You have to work over a period of days to get acclimated to the limited air at that elevation.

Why am I sharing Max's story here? There is a constant barrage of communication in the media about how we are raising a generation of kids who are glued to their TV, Game boy or Computer Screen. Here in Phoenix we are blessed with many local hiking trails and amazing parks. "Get off of the couch" as our sports camp director recommends. So my encouragement to parents is to find ways to get involved with your kids in activities outside of the house. Foster free play and don't worry if and when they fall or scape their knee. And if someone pushes someone else over, there is no need to rush in to protect them. Kids have a way of working it out among themselves.

OK, back to Max and his friends. I have to tell you the Rest of the Story as Paul Harvey says. Max is part of a team organized by the folks at the Foundation for Blind Children, who have put together a team of blind students and partnered them with sighted volunteers to climb Mt Kilimanjaro together. Here is their web site http://www.seekiliourway.org/. I am also including a link to the letter from Pam and Jim Stelzer outlining their family's reasons for being part of the "see kili our way" climb. Click here to read their letter. If you have trouble with the link, copy and paste the following link into a new browser window:
http://www.hubbardswim.com/ConstantContact/SeeKiliOurWay_StelzerLetter.pdf

This is not a fund raising letter (although if you elect to help these kids that would be great). It is an invitation to get up, get off the couch --- parents and kids --- and chase some kind of dream. Most people would look at Max and his friends and be thankful that you have your eyesight. I think Max is gonna look back over his life and feel sorry for people who were limited because they were sighted. I am gonna bet that Max is gonna come back from Africa will all kinds of impressions of life in Africa that we would miss. From the smells and sounds of the cities, the smell of the bush, to the feel of the winds, to the rhythm of language, and to the joy of trying to do something that is a really tough challenge.

If you want to help with their mission, check out their web site. If you want to learn from these kids, just get up and take a walk.

Christmas Memories

Today I have copied a note from our son, Patrick. He has his version of an email blog/newsletter and I thought he hit a pretty good note. So, here are his thoughts on Christmas Memories:

'Tis The Season to be Crazy

So in the spirit of the holiday season and seeing that the last blog I wrote was about how much I adore Thanksgiving, I figure now is a good time to talk a little bit about my experience with the wild and crazy Christmas season. To me Christmas is about family – but not in the traditional sense of that phrase. What I mean is, Christmas is always wild. No matter what the circumstance is, something crazy always happens to my family during Christmas. If your family is anything like our family, something wildly hilarious will happen. For example, one Christmas years and years ago, my family decided to get everybody together and head up to New York, where my Dad grew up. Once up there, we had a house about a mile from the beach and somebody thought it would be a great idea to do a “Polar Bear” swim. A polar bear swim is a winter swim in the ocean. The next day, in the freezing cold 40 degree wind, I walked slowly with my family into the harshly cold weather down to the beach to face the cold cold water, for one reason and one reason alone, because if I didn’t, my siblings would never stop making fun of me.

At the beach all of us kids solemnly began taking off layers of jackets and sweaters, beginning to think that this might just be a terrible idea. We were almost down to our bathing suits, when we heard a hysterically laughing man running down the beach towards us. I looked up and I saw one of the happiest men I have ever seen. My dad, in all his glory, wearing a bright red pajama/long underwear suit, (you know the kind with the butt flap), literally skipping across the beach, past all of his hesitant kids and plunging himself into the freezing waves. With a quick glance across the line of siblings, we all began racing towards the water, laughing to the point of tears, without a hint of fear in our hearts.

This is the kind of family experiences I think Christmas is all about. No need for stating out loud what we are all thankful for but instead, acting on what we are all grateful for. To me Christmas is a time to laugh, to love, and to act on gratitude. To show the people you love how much you they mean to you, and to experience the magic of the season together.

Memories like this one I just shared with you all keep me going. No matter how bad my day is, the simple mental picture of my dad grinning ear to ear in that red jump suit can make any day one to be grateful for.

Keep livin’ the dream

Patrick

CPR Update

We promote water safety all of the time at our swim schools. Our primary focus has been sharing the message of the Safer 3 with our friends at the swim school and their families. One of components of the Safer 3 has been a Safer Response to learn CPR. Now amazing news from the Phoenix Fire Department.

Our local newspaper, The Arizona Republic is reporting that based upon a fire department study people are experiencing an almost 300% increase in lives saved by using the technique of continuous chest compressions.

The message is to "push hard, push fast and increase the chance of survival by circulating oxygenated blood to the victim's heart and brain." the article quotes Dr. Ben Bobrow, medical director of the Arizona Department of Health Services Bureau of Emergency Medicine Services and Trauma System citing a study in the Journal of the American Medical Association that reviewed 1,243 cases recorded by two of our valley's fire departments.

The Hands-only CPR encourages the average person to pump on the cardiac victim's chest 200 times every two minutes. Check out the American Heart Association web site that explains technique and also has a video demonstration.

According to the American Heart Association: Adults who suddenly collapse and are not responsive are likely to have sudden cardiac arrest and their chance of survival is nearly zero unless someone takes action immediately. You should call 911 and start giving hard and fast chest compressions in the center of the chest, with minimal interruptions. If sudden cardiac arrest is the cause of the collapse, Hands-Only CPR is an easy, effective way for any bystander to more than double the victim's chance for survival. If an adult has collapsed for reasons other than sudden cardiac arrest, Hands-Only CPR could still help by causing the person to respond (begin to move, breathe normally or speak). If that occurs, Hands-Only CPR can be stopped. Otherwise, chest compressions should continue until EMS providers arrive.

So if you are like some of my family members who freak out in trying to remember the old sequencing of chest compressions to breaths, this new recommendation is so simple. Just do the chest compressions and wait for the emergency responders.

The Gettysburg Address

Why, you may ask is he thinking of Lincoln's Gettysburg address today. I was recently at the Arizona Entrepreneurship Conference and Bill Reichert of Garage Technology Ventures, one of the speakers, remarked that Wednesday, November 19th was the 145th anniversary of The Gettysburg Address. He went on to describe his experiences at The Lincoln Memorial In Washington, DC. Bill talked about standing in the Lincoln Memorial at midnight, looking out over the Washington Mall toward our nation's capital Building and reading Lincoln's Gettysburg address, which is inscribed on an interior wall there. This approximately two minute speech was delivered by President Lincoln as he consecrated the fields of the Battle of Gettysburg as the final resting place for more than seven thousand five hundred soldiers (7,500) killed in that momentous three day battle in the Civil War.

I cannot tell you the number of times I have been lucky enough to share a moment at the Lincoln Memorial with friends as we toured our nation's capital late at night. The only thing I can add to Bill's memory is the recommendation to leave the Lincoln Memorial and slowly walk along the Vietnam Memorial just a few yards away. These are very powerful memories of the prices thousands have paid for our country.

As our country prepares to celebrate the election of our first African American President and as our armed forces battle in lands far from home, this Thanksgiving I believe we should think about these words from President Lincoln! I will not pretend to explain them. I would hope that we as Americans can live up to not only the words but the deeds of those who have come before us. Not only in the fields of battle of war but on the battlegrounds for liberty and equality for all. Today, I can do no more than ask you to slowly read aloud these words:

Four score and seven years ago our fathers brought forth on this continent, a new nation, conceived in Liberty, and dedicated to the proposition that all men are created equal.

Now we are engaged in a great civil war, testing whether that nation, or any nation so conceived and so dedicated, can long endure. We are met on a great battle-field of that war. We have come to dedicate a portion of that field, as a final resting place for those who here gave their lives that that nation might live. It is altogether fitting and proper that we should do this.

But, in a larger sense, we can not dedicate -- we can not consecrate -- we can not hallow -- this ground. The brave men, living and dead, who struggled here, have consecrated it, far above our poor power to add or detract. The world will little note, nor long remember what we say here, but it can never forget what they did here. It is for us the living, rather, to be dedicated here to the unfinished work which they who fought here have thus far so nobly advanced. It is rather for us to be here dedicated to the great task remaining before us -- that from these honored dead we take increased devotion to that cause for which they gave the last full measure of devotion -- that we here highly resolve that these dead shall not have died in vain -- that this nation, under God, shall have a new birth of freedom -- and that government of the people, by the people, for the people, shall not perish from the earth.

If you want something to share with the "video" generation here is a link to the clip from the film Remember The Titans, where Coach Boone (Denzel Washington), talks to the young men on his integrated football team about the meaning of Gettysburg.

As a sign of my hope for our country, we welcome our ninth grandchild Kevin Patrick, born at 5:15 pm, November 19, 2008 who joins his brother Frank! Congratulations, Amer and Pat.

Family Traditions -- Be Brave -- Establish Your Own

One of the things I marvel at every holiday season is how conflicted and exhausted parents of young families often become over where and how to spend their holiday time. There are the families that spend Thanksgiving with one set of parents and Christmas with another. Or even the families that spend half a day with each family driving hours and hours with tired crabby kids in order to not offend parents or relatives.

We had a young family and were living in Denver, Colorado in the 1980's. My family was from Brooklyn, NY and Kathy's was living in Arizona. Well, sometime in early October the phone calls started, inquiring where WE were going to spend Christmas. Obviously with three young children and a fourth on the way, our respective parents, brothers and sisters were anxious to see us. Lots of pressure. Beginning in the early days of our marriage, Kathy and I had established Thanksgiving as a day at our home, even though we lived in the same town as her family. We hosted what we called a waif's dinner, for her family if they choose to come and for friends who did not have family and had no where else to go. It became a strong tradition and a great opportunity to be with friends, relatives and an occasional newcomer who was dragged along by a friend. Best of all we got to stay home with our little ones and just hang out.

But now - we had moved all the way to Colorado! Obviously, judging from the phone calls from our respective families, they felt Christmas was an important time for family to reconnect. So building up our courage we called everyone and said, "we love you and will miss you but we are staying in Colorado and sneaking away to a condo in Vail". We told everyone they were always welcome to come visit with us. It turned out to be a great decision and a tradition that we carried on through the 1980's. Our families came to accept that we viewed this time as a chance to establish our own family traditions. They of course were always welcome. In fact, one year my entire family of six brothers and sisters along with my mom and dad came from all over the US to spend the holidays in Colorado. It was one of the most memorable times ever for everyone of us as we had 24 inches of snow on Christmas Eve and no one could go anywhere. We spent Christmas day in our driveway climbing to the top of our suburban and diving into the snow banks on our lawn. The photos were wonderful!

So today as you look ahead to the coming holiday season, be brave and think about establishing YOUR OWN FAMILY TRADITIONS.

Now, I will share one more weird tradition that we have in our family. In 1969 Arlo Guthrie, the son of the famed folk singer Woody Guthrie, wrote and performed a classic song, Alice' Restaurant. It is 18+ minutes long and describes the adventures of a group of friends at Thanksgiving. We have played that song in our home every Thanksgiving as Kathy prepares dinner for the past 34 years (and for those few Thanksgivings spent on the road at soccer tournaments we just brought the music along)!!!! And there was a tear in my eye, a few years ago when our kids called from Cincinnati to tell me that as they prepared their Thanksging meal they were playing it as well . Check it out If you live in Phoenix, radio sattion KDKB plays it at 9am, 12pm, 3 pm and 6pm each Thanksgiving.

Let us know some of your more unique family holiday traditions.

Haley Scott Demaria - "What Though the Odds"

When Dick Rosenthal retired as athletic director in 1995 after a lifetime of service to the University of Notre Dame, he was asked about the most memorable story of his tenure. Without hesitation, the chief of sports at America's most storied university replied, "Haley Scott."

Haley was an excellent swimmer from the Phoenix area who had gone on from Xavier College Prep to swim for the Fighting Irish. When the Notre Dame women's swim team suffered a fatal bus crash, the lives of those on the bus, their families, and the community were changed forever. Paralyzed after the accident, Haley was told she would never walk again. That was unacceptable to her. With the help of those who cared most about her - her family, her school and her teammates - she chose a different fate and promised not only to walk, but to swim again for the Fighting Irish, which she amazingly accomplished.

Over the years and when she returned to Phoenix to work at Xavier Prep, I had an opportunity to get to know Haley. Over time, I came to understand that the determination, strength and resilience of this woman were just a few of the reasons a collegiate swimmer from Arizona left such a lasting impression on the athletic director of one the most prestigious academic and athletic universities in the nation.

The bus crash of the Notre Dame women's swim team that left two young athletes dead and many injured has drifted from many people's memories. Sixteen years after her injury, Haley has written a book to tell her story and perhaps, just perhaps, motivate some young athlete to persevere and overcome some hardships.

Haley will be returning to her high school alma mater, Xavier College Prep, this week from her home in Annapolis for a book signing, as a mother of two and a voice for hope. Her book can be found on amazon.com through at major bookstores. If you want an autographed copy check with Xavier Prep for information on her appearance on Wednesday September 17th at their campus.

Go here for a review of What Though the Odds and story from Bill Dwyre of the LA Times.

Note: I'm not turning this blog into a continual book review, but I thought Haley's story is timely as the paralympics end quietly in Beijing and our injured soldiers return from their battles overseas. We need to be aware of the effort that Haley and many other fine men and women fight in the halls of hospitals, therapy rooms and in the loneliness of their minds in their pursuit of athletic achievement and recovery.