WHY WE DO THIS WORK
Roxie Mirabelle Forbes died under horrific circumstances. She drowned in a relatively small swimming pool at Summerkids Camp in Altadena, CA.
According to court documents, trial transcripts, exhibits and testimony, camp owners coordinated with a fraudulently certified lifeguard instructor to fraudulently certify counselors as lifeguards. According to court documents and exhibits, the owners did so since at least 2006 and were able to pocket an extra few thousand dollars each year.
According to the documents and testimony, the camp director/co-owner chose not to call Roxie’s parents as Roxie lay dead on her pool deck. Instead, documents and testimony show the camp director/co-owner holed up in her office and called her own parents.
The documents and testimony show the camp director/co-owner also immediately shut out Roxie’s parents from all communications and refused to return their tuition check. Documents show that the camp owner/director prevented parents from picking up their traumatized children and kept the camp open the entire day after Roxie drowned in the morning. According to court documents and testimony, the camp owner/director’s explanations about the drowning details were untrue.
Therefore, this foundation and this website was established for three reasons:
To honor Roxie by preventing other children from being harmed in camps or aquatics environments
To hold parties accountable for harming children and help aggrieved families garner the justice they deserve
To educate and to advocate for long overdue, well-researched and critical change in these environments
READ MORE HERE →
(All applicable court documents, exhibits and trial transcript excerpts are currently being compiled for this website.)
WHAT WE DO
WE ARE THE ONLY CAMP SAFETY FOUNDATION IN AMERICA. This may be hard to believe, considering roughly 30,000 day and resident (overnight) camps represent a $26 billion industry serving 25 million children and 1.5 million camp employees. Camps are beloved. They can provide opportunities for social, emotional, cultural and physical growth. However, a stunning lack of safety regulations fails to prevent sexual abuse, emotional abuse, disease, injuries and deaths from enduring at camps. We work with vital stakeholders to maximize benefit and minimize harm.
More on Safety for Children’s Camps →
The U.S. has roughly 10 million private and public pools and 100,000 miles of exterior and interior open water shoreline. Childhood drowning continues to be a national health and safety crisis that does not receive the attention it so desperately deserves. Legislation is sorely lacking. Water safety education is rarely taught in school health programs. And, nearly 90% of young children drown in pools, bathtubs and even buckets of water under the supervision of nearby adults.
More on Childhood Drowning Prevention →
WHO ROXIE IS
BECAUSE CHILDREN DESERVE NOTHING BUT THE BEST HEALTH AND SAFETY PROTECTIONS.
Roxie will be 6 1/2 forever.
Learning to ride
Always dancing.
Final Video
Roxie adored the magic of the Pacific
WHERE YOU SEE US
WHAT IS THE LATEST DATA
→ Drowning increased by 28% among children ages 1–4 in 2022 compared to 2019.
→ Drowning increased 28% among Black people in 2021 compared to 2019.
→ Over half (55%) of U.S. adults have never taken a swimming lesson.
→ Drowning remains the number one cause of death for children ages 1–4.
→ We must immediately being looking at this national safety epidemic through an entirely new lens.
And that’s exactly what we are going to do.
NEWS
