LINCOLN, Neb. (KMTV) — Blake Collingsworth started a community-centered program after his two-year-old son drowned in the family pool.
The incident happened in June 2008. Collingsworth recalls the moment Josh was discovered in the pool by his wife.
“I started to walk out my office door then I heard her scream. She looked out the back window and saw him face down in the pool,” he said.
From the tragedy, the program called "Josh the Otter" was born. It uses a cartoon character to stress the importance of water safety.
Collingsworth calls the program a fun way for kids to understand playing in water is fun, but not risk-free.
“We want to start getting kids engaged in that concept as early as they can understand it,” Collingsworth said. “That's the point of Josh the Otter.”
Josh the Otter started out as a book Collingsworth wrote teaching kids how to swim and to never be alone near water. It went from the pages into pools teaching kids as young as six months how to stay afloat.
Dr. Jim Buscher with Children's Hospital and Medical Center said drownings are the number one cause of accidental deaths in kids aged 1 to 4.
Collingsworth finds this frustrating and this is a big part of why he wants every kid to learn these potentially lifesaving skills as early as possible.
“It's amazing how easy they learn, the younger they start the quicker they learn,” Collingsworth said.
The Josh the Otter book is available for purchase at Collingsworth’s website. He's also working to get more in-person training sessions set up in the Omaha area.
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