MMF Meets with Olympian John Naber

Meow Meow Foundation principals Doug Forbes and Elena Matyas met with former Olympian, television personality and fellow Pasadenan John Naber to discuss drowning prevention ideas for the coming year.

Forbes and Matyas specifically sought Naber’s endorsement of their idea to establish May as Drowning Prevention Awareness Month, a proclamation that would require California Governor Newsom to issue an Executive Order.

“We met with the Michael Phelps Foundation the day before for related reasons,” Forbes said. “We believe that surrounding ourselves with people who have achieved remarkable goals is a way for us to continue learning and growing as an organization.”

Forbes and Matyas are corralling support for their idea to enlist high-profile persons who can help influence the governor to finally establish a long-overdue platform that will eliminate wholly preventable childhood drowning.

Naber agreed to endorse the idea and connect the foundation to other athletes who might lend a hand in the effort.

At age twenty, Naber won four gold medals and a silver at the 1976 Summer Olympics in Montreal, Quebec. Each of his victories was swum in world-record time. For these and other accomplishments, Naber won the James E. Sullivan Award, which is presented to the top American amateur athlete of the year. He was inducted into the International Swimming Hall of Fame as an "Honor Swimmer" in 1982 and U.S. Olympic Committee Hall of Fame in 1984.

Naber has also published two books and tackled reporting assignments for ABC, NBC, CBS, ESPN, HBO, TBS and FOX Sports.