To Provide Swimming lessons for children and parents.  Propose to teach parents and children (ages 6 months - 36 months) coaching them in principles of water safety.  They plan to enroll parents and children during daytime and evening hours.  Promotion will be through day care centers and head start centers.  They believe this will result in a reduction of the frequency of drownings and near drownings within their Durant / Bryan County population.   

To assist approximately 17,000 Charlotte Harbor area boaters with an informational CD and corresponding materials with chart sections, water shots including key navigational points of interest, animated light characteristics. and aerial shots of the harbor's key areas.

The grant will be used to continue to support the annual Ranger Willie's Wet and Wild Waterfest.  This is a water safety festival that is held during each July 4th Holiday at Wappapello Lake.  The event consists of various water related and land based games and activities such as cardboard boat building and racing, canoe racing, inner tube racing, PFD fashion show, PFD race, tug of war and sand castle building contests, water basketball, water balloon toss, puppet shows, etc.  The purpose of these activities is to provide public safety education and awareness in a fun and exciting manner.

The grant will assist the Coalition in its ongoing efforts to increase water safety awareness.  The Coalition plans to purchase 1200 "Water Watcher Tags"  These tags are designed to increase adult vigilance when children are in or near the water.  The tags include water safety information on the reverse side. The tags will be distributed to adults wherever children may swim, with heavy concentration on non-guarded areas including home pools, rivers, beaches, and boat ramps.  The coalition plans to reach 2400 parents.

Grenada Lake Association will use the Grant  funding to promote water safety at the Lake.  Funding will assist in he presentation of the annual Thunder on the Water, a safe boating festival held each year during the National Safe Boating week.  The Association will be giving away life jackets, t-shirts, stickers, and other prizes during a three day festival.  Also included in the festival are prizes for boaters who pass their safety inspections, and to boaters who display the proper use of rescue devices at a water safety booth.  134,000 people visited Grenada Lake during the events in 2002

The Water Safety council has requested Grant funding for their Water Safety Educators programs.  The program is designed to achieve face to face water safety outreach with primarily non English speaking portions of their community.  Educators are bi-lingual, and distribute bi-lingual safety information in the form of pamphlets containing information on PFD's, coloring books, lists of swimming lesson providers, and explains the dangers of drinking alcohol as a care provider or participant in water safety activities.  A packet of information is also given out which includes a CPR card form the America Lung Association, water safety tips for the six types of water bodies in Fresno County (lakes, rivers, ponding basins, irrigation canals, swimming pools, and hot tubs), and an alert whistle with laminated tag explaining that while at gatherings around water qualified adults should take turns as the designated watcher.