FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Contact: Glenda Wolnik, Lee County Health Department
              (239) 332-9571

COUNTY'S "LEARN TO SWIM" PROGRAM WINS STATEWIDE AWARD

FORT MYERS, Fla. (June 24, 2003) - The Lee County Emergency Medical Services, Lee County Health Department, Lee County Parks and Recreation and the School District of Lee County will receive a 2003 Davis Productivity Award for their "Learn To Swim Safely" program.

The ceremony will be at the Grand Hyatt Tampa Bay on Wednesday, June 25 at 11:30 a.m.

The 2003 Davis Productivity Awards program, chaired by Lt. Governor Toni Jennings, recognizes state government employees whose work measurably increases productivity to improve the delivery of state services and save money for Florida taxpayers and businesses.

More than 1,100 preschool-aged children participated in the program in addition to the 721 parents who received water safety education training. Designed to prevent drownings, the "Learn to Swim Safely" program consists of eight 30-minute swimming and water safety lessons per child and an hour water safety/rescue educational class for parents. When applied specifically to the Head Start audience, it was determined that five of the eight child development teaching domains were met including motor, language, socialization, emotional, and creativity skills.

Drowning is Florida's number one cause of unintentional injury related death of children age 5 and under. So far this year, there have been eight drownings in Lee County with one under the age of five. There were 15 drownings in Lee County in 2002; three were children under the age of five. It is estimated that drownings or near-drownings cost the community $100,000 each.

The primary partnerships, between EMS, Health Department, Parks and Recreation and the School District, expanded into 46 community partnerships providing money and in-kind donations, which contributed to the success of the program.

There are no current plans for the program in 2004; however, Lee County Parks and Recreation, the City of Fort Myers, and YMCA have agreed to give free swim classes to Head Start pre-school children whose parents attend the water safety education training class. Parents have until July 29 to schedule their children. For more information, contact Diane Holm at (239) 332-9590 or visit
 http://www.lee-county.com/healthdept/data4/SWIMLee.htm.