A Tampa woman is spreading awareness on childhood drowning through a local survival swim school helping kids learn water safety one swim at a time.
TAMPA – It took only 20 seconds for Kari Bahour’s life to change forever. A normal trip to a friends house turned into a tragic event that left her with a new purpose.
Almost 28 years ago Bahour’s 16 month old son fell into a pool was found unconscious and not breathing. Thankfully Kari’s son survived due to the quick arrival of first responders. Even though her son made a full recovery, Kari Bahour was changed by the experience ever since.
Bahour did lots of research on childhood drownings to be prepared for the possibility of this happening again in the future. While searching she was shocked to find that drowning is the leading cause of death in children ages one to four. This is when she decided to take action and leave her profession as a paralegal.
In 2000 she created Watch Me Swim and dedicated her life’s work to teaching the children of Tampa Bay how to learn basic skills to save themselves in any body of water. She teaches children six months and up skills such as holding their breath under water, rolling over, floating, and resting while swimming.
14 years later four toddlers in the Tampa Bay area tragically died on Mother’s Day weekend and that made Kari realize there was more to be done. In 2014 she created a non profit called the Water Smart Tots foundation which gathered grants and community donations to provide scholarships to families that cannot afford self rescue swim lessons.
Statistics of childhood drownings are still at an all time high in Florida but that does not stop Bahour to keep fighting this cause. The turning point for her was when her 2 year old daughter fell into the deep end of the pool unattended and saved herself using the skills she learned in these lessons.
“There’s more work that continuously needs to be done and I truly believe drowning is preventable and these kinds of lessons can make the difference between life or death cause it did for my daughter” said Bahour.
To learn more about Watch Me Swim or enroll for swim lessons click here.