Drennens Dreams Foundation - The Tank 2020

Our mission at Drennen’s Dreams Foundation is to honor Drennen’s legacy by teaching and training lifeguards and aquatics professionals, equipping and supporting managers and owners to maintain the highest safety standards. Drennen’s Dreams Foundation vision is to support, inspire and impact communities nationwide with drowning prevention awareness focusing on two main initiatives: providing education and developing partnerships.

Each year we lead approximately 50-60 presentations to lifeguard, aquatics managers and facility owner/operators throughout the United States. In addition we offer an online video presentation subscription. Our videos have been viewed by aquatics organizations throughout the United States and Canada.

Drennen was the victim of a tragic drowning accident.   In his memory, the primary focus of Drennen’s Dreams is promoting drowning prevention and water safety to ensue that no more unnecessary deaths occur due to insufficient training of lifeguards, lack of necessary monitoring and medical equipment, and mismanagement of pool facilities.  We work with private and nonprofit organizations with pools, water parks and waterfronts to reinforce accountability standards and ensure lifeguards know how to implement their training, and we will help lifeguards understand what is truly at stake while they are on duty. Most importantly we inspire their confidence and vigilance while on duty. We help aquatics managers understand their duties regarding establishing protocols, procedures, emergency action plans, in-service training and equipment training. For facility owners/operators we help them understand water activity risk management through appropriate oversight, responsibility and accountability to create a culture of patron safety and fun.

One of the new ways we are supporting and engaging the general public and aquatic organizations is by developing a mobile application providing free drowning prevention and water safety information and in-service training modules for aquatic staff. The app will be free to the public.

Aquatic organization managers will be able to sign up their organization and staff for a sustainable annual subscription fee. We will be able to geo-tag their staff’s mobile devices and push the in-service training modules to those devices when staff arrive on site for work per the in-service training schedule the managers select. This will dynamically raise the scope of training, vigilance and safety and guarded facilities nationally.

The application features:

• In-Service training modules delivered to lifeguard staff per your selections and schedule, geo-tagged to their mobile device or delivered via email.
• Risk management and water safety information delivered to managers and facility owners/operators per your selections and schedule, geo-tagged to their mobile device or delivered via email.
• Report Your Rescues feature to easily record your rescues. This can be vital in your risk management self analysis and shared with your insurance company as part of your joint risk analysis. The rescue information is also an important training tool for lifeguard and managers. We will also be able to use the aggregate data to share with insurance companies to demonstrate how the training and support mitigates risk and lowers incident exposure. 
• There will be a live news feed with articles related to drowning prevention and water safety. 
• A donations link will provide users with the ability to support Drennen’s Dreams Foundation.
• Newsletter delivery
• Multiple ways to engage Drennen’s Dreams Foundation and schedule a presentation.
• Seeking to raise $7500 to sustain the mobile application hosting for 5 years so that we can build it to self-sustaining.

Why do we do what we do? Here are some sobering drowning statistics:

• Drowning is the leading cause of accidental death for children ages 4 and younger.
• Drowning is the second leading cause of accidental death for youth ages 15 to 5.
• There are an average of nearly ten drowning deaths per day in the US, five times that number of nonfatal drowning incidents per day.
• More than 50% of drowning victims treated in emergency departments require hospitalization or transfer for further care. These nonfatal drowning injuries can cause severe brain damage that may result in long-term disabilities such as memory problems, learning disabilities, and permanent loss of basic functioning (e.g., permanent vegetative state).

Your support helps us complete the mobile application in-service training modules and begin delivering them to lifeguards and aquatic staff in 2020. Drowning is preventable!