Swim
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Learn
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Thrive
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Swim ≈ Learn ≈ Thrive ≈
WaterStrong is making a real difference in the communities we serve through deepening community partnerships and expanding programs in water safety outreach and essential life skills training. We’re still breaking barriers to access to essential lifesaving services, water safety training, and clean water.
Over 350,000 deadly cardiac arrests and 4,000 drowning deaths happen in the US annually. A silent killer, drowning is the third leading cause of injury death for children. In the US, 4,000 people die from drowning every year; In Oregon, almost all drownings occur in natural bodies of water, rivers, lakes and oceans. At the same time, severe climate change events are increasing: wildfires, harmful algal blooms, flooding and groundwater contaminants threaten water quality everywhere.
The more people who know basic water safety skills, CPR, and the fundamentals of watershed health, the better we ALL will be.
The WaterStrong mission is to end drowning and promote safer, cleaner waters. To do this, we deliver programs in basic water safety, swimming, first aid / CPR, and environmental education. In 2025 so far, we have delivered almost 1,800 essential lifejackets and safety whistles, served more than 2,200 families and leveraged nearly 55,000 volunteer hours. It’s good work. Swim! Learn! Thrive!
Upcoming Events
Eco-Swim Clinics: one Sunday afternoon each month, volunteer swim instructors share their love for the water through skills in water safety, boating safety, and environmental education around water. Anyone 12+ can volunteer. Oct. 19, Nov 16, Dec 21, Jan 18, March 15, April 15, May 17, June 14. Volunteer
Red Cross Waterfront Skills certification. For certified lifeguards to gain the skills necessary for responding to emergencies in open water environments at lakes, rivers and some ocean beaches. October 25. Sign up
Red Cross Adult & Pediatric First Aid / CPR / AED: Stay tuned, coming soon!
Community outreach: Stay tuned!
As We Care For The Water, The Water Cares For Us.
The WaterStrong mission is to save lives and destroy barriers. Barriers to water access, swimming lessons, tools and skills for water safety, safe swimming areas, clean water, healthy environments, education. Barriers rooted in racism, classism, the race toward “progress”. Those barriers exist even in our own backyards, and they directly impact all of us.
With over 380,000 drowning deaths every year, drowning is the third leading cause of accidental injury death in the world. In the United States, with 4,000 deaths each year, drowning is the second leading cause of death for children 1-4 years old, and the third leading cause in every other age group through adults 29 and over. Males are four times more likely to die by drowning than females.
Among young people age 5-19, drowning rates for blacks, indigenous and people of color are 2 - 10 times higher than for whites. In the United States, nearly 70% of black people cannot swim compared to 40% of whites. Those disparities did not exist in the past and should not exist now. We must take care of each other in the water because every drowning death is preventable, and because there’s no defensible justification for barriers to swimming and water access.
When we look at the environment, we know the earth, like the human body, is 71% water. Yet less than .025% of that water is accessible as freshwater in lakes, rivers and streams. And almost every drop of that surface water is being used, is overdrawn, or is contaminated. We must take care of our water, because we depend on every drop and there’s so very little of it available to us.
The WaterStrong mission is to end drowning and promote cleaner, safer waters, destroying barriers along the way. We do this by delivering an integrated approach to building life saving skills in the water to build confidence and understanding the water to build connection with the earth.
Swim! Learn! Thrive!
WaterStrong builds the next generation of confident swimmers and clean water stewards.