For Immediate Release January 2, 2023

Contact: Jennifer Poteat, MSHCT, EMPL

Executive Director, Colin’s Hope

(512) 222-7591 | [email protected]

Colin’s Hope Board of Directors Welcomes New Executive Director

AUSTIN, TX –Colin’s Hope, a non-profit aimed at ending preventable childhood drownings, announces the appointment of Jennifer Poteat, MSHCT, EMPL as the new Executive Director. The Board of Directors, volunteers, donors, and partners enable Colin’s Hope to carry out its mission to educate parents, teachers, caregivers, and children about water safety to prevent drownings, a major public health issue.

“We are excited to utilize the unique talents and dedication to the mission of Ms. Poteat to ensure no child dies of preventable drowning,” said Board Chair Carli Smith. “Jennifer brings a wealth of experience in advocacy, education, and public health. She contributes diverse non-profit leadership skills to guide and grow this organization.”

Poteat was previously a non-profit consultant after earning her second master’s degree from the University of Texas at Austin. Before the Covid pandemic, she was a Regional Ambassador for the Texas Hospital Association Foundation serving member hospitals throughout Texas with a focus on the Houston region and the Texas Medical Center. She earned a B.A. at the University of South Carolina and is an award-winning artist bringing creativity and vision to this role. In 2016, she was awarded the Executive Master’s in Public Leadership from the LBJ School of Public Affairs. As Covid-19 changed the world, she continued her educational pursuits to serve the public health needs of her community. In 2021, she earned a Master of Health Care Transformation a co-degree from Dell Medical School and McCombs School of Business. She has served in numerous volunteer roles in the community with the Austin Women’s Federated Club, the Austin Book Arts Center, and is Vice-Chair of the Zilker Botanical Garden Conservancy.

Poteat succeeds Inaugural Executive Director Alissa Magrum, who began her tenure with the organization as a volunteer and assumed the role of Executive Director in December 2008. In continuing to honor her commitment to Colin’s legacy, Magrum will remain as a strategic advisor during the transition.

About Colin’s Hope:

Colin’s Hope was formed in 2008 after four-year old Colin Holst tragically drowned in a public pool, with lifeguards on duty and family members present. Our mission is to provide water safety awareness, education and resources to prevent children from drowning. Our major water safety programs and initiatives are held year-round and across the country. We encourage everyone to learn to be safer around water by visiting the website Drowning is Preventable to access free, online resources.

Issue Summary:

Drowning is the #1 cause of accidental death for children under 5 and a leading cause for ages 1-14. According to the Center for Disease Control and Prevention, for each fatal drowning incident, five more children receive emergency care for submersion injuries.1 While no one is drown-proof, drowning IS preventable.

####

This blog post was originally published in 2021 for host families and au pairs of Au Pair In America

Yay! It’s summer!  That means backyard barbeques, pool parties, lake days, and trips to the beach are here.  And while water can be so much fun,  water is also dangerous.  

DId you know that drowning is the number 1 cause of accidental death for children under 5 and a leading cause for ages 1-14?  Drowning is FAST AND SILENT. Drowning happens to all types of families and in all kinds of water- bath tubs, pools, lakes, ponds, rivers, beaches and even buckets and toilets.  The good news is that drowning is PREVENTABLE.  

Colin’s Hope, a trusted water safety organization, asks you to take a few minutes and do these simple things that will keep your family safer around water. We do not want you  to lose a loved one, as we lost Colin,  to a preventable drowning.

1.  LEARN ABOUT WATER SAFETY : Visit the Colin’s Hope website to find water safety tips, resources and games. Take the Colin’s Hope Water Safety Quiz and the Parent & Caregiver Water Safety Course 
2. TALK ABOUT WATER SAFETY.  Talk to all of the caregivers in your family and your children of all ages about water safety. Play water safety games and create water safety rules for your family.  GET and READ the Colin & Friends WAIT FOR A GROWN UP book and have a water safety storytime.
3. PRACTICE WATER SAFETY. Always appoint an undistracted adult (A WATER GUARDIAN) to watch kids around water and use a Water Guardian Badge so you can tell who is on duty.  Wear properly fitted and fastened U.S. Coast Guard approved life jackets when on boats and around open water.
4. PREVENT DROWNING.  When we learn about, talk about and practice water safety, we can prevent drowning.

Colin’s Hope is here to help. Please reach out to us and please share this life saving information with family and friends. Together,  we can save so many lives. 

In the words of Colin Holst–Have the Best Day Ever!

Alissa Magurm

Colin’s Hope Executive Director, Mom and Lover of Water

Colins Hope is excited to share the news of a brand new partnership with Austin Sunshine Camps!

A natural partner for Colin’s Hope, Austin Sunshine Camps has a mission to engage and empower youth through education and outdoor experiences. With water-related activities offered daily at the camp, the opportunities for water safety are endless.

While the details of the partnership are continuing to grow, Austin Sunshine Camps has already incorporated Water Safety with Colin & Friends in one of their virtual camps! 10 campers learned The Whole Hand Rules and pledged to help keep their smaller siblings safe around water.

Additionally, Colin’s Hope is looking forward to the upcoming collaborations:

• Educating teen campers so that they can then teach water safety to younger campers
• Training ASC staff & some volunteers around water safety
• Assisting ASC as they improve their water safety-related policies during their American Camping Association accreditation process
• and much more!

THANK YOU to Austin Sunshine Camps for commiting to water safety and drowning prevention practices! Together, we aim to create a Gold Standard for water safety and educate as many children and families as possible with life-saving drowning prevention lessons.

The worldwide outbreak of the Coronavirus pandemic earlier this year has changed everyone’s lives significantly. In a matter of weeks, households became educated on a virus few had known and almost none had experienced. This knowledge led governments to encourage changes in everyday behavior by releasing students from schools, imposing strict medical precautions, and having families shelter-in-place. Although these changes have been significant in and of themselves, many are unaware of the impact they have made on another equally dangerous worldwide pandemic — drowning.

Drowning receives less prominent attention, yet remains a worldwide epidemic of significant proportion. Additionally, the chaotic changes in families — kids at home, parents/caregivers working remotely, and rising temperatures — has increased drowning risks for children of all ages substantially. In the first 6 weeks of sheltering in place, the number of child drownings in Texas doubled over the current 10-year average for the same time period.

Anticipating the danger, our small but mighty team immediately pivoted and has worked around the clock since mid-March to ensure families are receiving water safety education to combat the risks within their own home. 

• Our staff began regular LIVE broadcasts on social media, including water safety lessons and games for children as well as education for parents and caregivers. To date, we have recorded over 80 NEW videos that are now available to families, schools, and other partner organizations. 
• We have provided schools access to water safety lessons and activities for use in an online teaching environment.
• We’ve kept our 10,000 supporters up to date in an attempt to keep water safety at the front of their minds and their families safer around water. 
• We also provided an at-home project to over 75 local households that encouraged water safety discussions as a family. 

We have been working passionately and tirelessly and will continue to do so as long as we are able. Although there is not much we can do to change the Coronavirus pandemic and the necessary behavior changes it has inspired, we KNOW we are making a difference in preventing drownings. THAT is the HOPE that keeps us going strong!

To support our critical work during this difficult time, please: 

The 2020 World’s Largest Swimming Lesson has gone virtual, and Colin’s Hope is excited to support and participate in this year’s event. Tune in to Facebook on Thursday, July 16 as we participate in a live broadcast at 1:30 PM CST, and throughout the day as we host two virtual swimming lessons with the incredible Kim Shults, aka Swim Kim!

The World’s Largest Swimming Lesson™, created by the World Waterpark Association in 2010, is a global public relations event supported by aquatic facilities, waterparks, pools, swim schools, YMCA’s, among others. The WLSL event serves as a platform to help the global aquatics industry work together to build awareness about the fundamental importance of teaching children to swim to prevent drowning.

Like the Colin’s Hope Facebook page and The World’s Largest Swimming Lesson Facebook page NOW, and watch us all day Thursday! Swimming lessons save lives. Participate in The World’s Largest Swimming Lesson with your whole family.

As one of the world’s largest pool and pool product companies, Latham Pool Products and Coverstar Central have huge opportunities to reach families with water safety education. Eric Wall, Director of Sales for Coverstar Central, sat down (virtually!) with Colin’s Hope to discuss how they have partnered with Colin’s Hope to bring our water safety cards to their customers with every single product purchase. Truly one of our greatest partners.  

Watch the video below for the full story, and or read this press release on PR Web.

Amplify Colin’s Hope March 5 & 6! Amplify Austin Day is the Central Texas region’s day of giving. It is a local generosity movement that connects individuals, families, businesses, and foundations with the causes they are passionate about to create real, lasting change for the local nonprofits that address our most pressing needs.

Colin’s Hope works 365 days a year to increase water safety awareness in families and children. After more than a decade of developing water safety strategies and becoming a leader in drowning prevention, Colin’s Hope has honed our knowledge into evidence-based programs and initiatives proved to grow child and caregiver understanding of water safety. Help us get this education into more classrooms, swim schools, pediatric offices, and the community at large by aiding our efforts. Give today and your gift will be amplified in Austin and beyond.

Help us do important work during this year’s Amplify Austin event. Here’s how:

• Schedule a donation to occur now through the end of Amplify Austin (March 6, 6 pm) – https://www.amplifyatx.org/organizations/colinshope
• Take and SHARE our Water Safety Quiz at www.colinshope.org/quiz
• Follow our social media channels for year-round water safety education and information to help keep you and your family safer: @colinshope on Instagram, Twitter, and Facebook

THANK YOU and have the BEST DAY EVER.

Thank you to Hays Free Press for a great article about the Prekindergarten program at Scudder Primary School in Wimberley, TX.

The article highlights the YMCA of Austin Project SAFE program that includes the Colin’s Hope Water Safety with Colin & Friends curriculum. What a great partnership with the Springs Branch YMCA in Dripping Springs and Wimberley ISD. Colin’s Hope is proud to be reaching so many families and children with life-saving water safety education and swim lessons.

Colin’s Hope is excited to enter a new partnership with Bright by Text, a division of Bright by Three. Bright by Text provides quality information and trusted resources to parents and caregivers of children prenatal to five. Available in English and Spanish, the messages are comprised of research-based content from Bright by Three and their partners.

Colin’s Hope is proud to join Bright by Text as a Content Partner, and will be providing essential water safety and drowning prevention messages to the organization. The first of several messages will be sent soon – don’t miss out! Sign up for Bright by Text so that you can receive life-saving drowning prevention tips and other important resources for your family today!