IT’S ROXIE’S WISH WEEK!

WHAT IS ROXIE’S WISH?

Roxie Forbes’ final wish was to spread fun and love and to ensure that all children can pursue their dreams.

Roxie was remarkably compassionate at such a young age. Her parents Doug and Elena searched for ways to honor her compassion and somehow forever keep her name and spirit alive. Doug and Elena incorporated Meow Meow Foundation just two weeks after Roxie died from a preventable drowning at Summerkids camp in Altadena, CA. MMF gained full nonprofit status six months later.

Two years after Roxie’s preventable drowning, Doug and Elena worked with the California legislature to establish a perennial resolution that declared the third week of every May as “Roxie’s Wish: Drowning Prevention Week for Children.” The week is dedicated to educating parents, caregivers and communities about drowning prevention and camp safety so that nobody has to suffer the way the Forbes family and thousands of other families nationwide have suffered from preventable child deaths.

MMF is also on the cusp of passing a “Roxie’s Wish” bill in New Jersey. and has worked with foundations in Washington, Texas and will soon do so in Florida to pass additional legislation in honor of children who have drowned.

MMF releases a highly engaging video and also announces a special project during each day of Roxie’s Wish Week. The videos include 9 Olympians, federal and state politicians, experts in aquatics and camps and many other stakeholders — even an Academy Award-winning songwriter. MMF is releasing its original but updated video series in honor of the fifth anniversary since Roxie died.

By offering this invaluable content, we want to make Roxie’s wish come true — to share fun, love and education that will help protect our most precious cargo — children.

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VIDEO SERIES

In 2021, we produced an unprecedented 7-part video series for the inaugural Roxie’s Wish Week, which also supports the purpose of our legislation to educate caregivers and communities about aquatics and camp safety for children. 2024 marks our fifth anniversary as a foundation and fifth year since our beloved Roxie died due to grossly negligent acts. To honor these milestones, we are re-releasing this dynamic daily video series with special updates and additions. Participants include 9 Olympians, high-profile politicians, industry experts, community leaders and everyday families who seek to reverse this national epidemic of wholly preventable childhood drowning and summer camp harm.

Click the icon or link below it to jump to the video of your choice.

INTRO VIDEO

PARTNERS

FEATURE DOCUMENTARY

Meow Meow Foundation President Doug Forbes has spent the last two years directing TO THE MOON AND BACK, a documentary which is both a love story and a stunning investigative journalism journey into on one of America’s darker secrets — child harm at summer camps. Doug has conducted hundreds of interviews and filmed in more than 100 locations across 15 states and Washington, D.C., all while battling nail-biting emotional and physical challenges.

LOGLINE: Following the suspicious death of his child, a grieving father uncovers how a dark, enduring secret about America’s beloved summer camp industry connects to billion dollar companies, religious institutions and all levels of government, including a former President and Vice President.

Click on the links to see still photos of the documentary production:

• DRONE

• INTERVIEWS

• VERITE DOUG

• VERITE

• B-ROLL

CPR DONATION — FREE EXPERT CPR CERTIFICATION!

CPR is a life skill. Everyone, including children, should have access to learning the fundamentals of cardio pulmonary resuscitation (CPR). Whether someone drowns or has an allergic reaction or suffers other hazardous conditions that lead to cardiac arrest, knowing how to restart a victim’s life is a wonderful skill.

Drowning victims can be revived within a reasonable amount of time and with proper CPR. We know many stories where children have been near death, but CPR and AED administration kept them alive.

Our foundation is working with ProTrainings to offer free CPR training on a first come first serve basis. Their experts, curriculum and convenient learning, will make your experience as rewarding as it should be.

CLICK THE LOGO TO BEGIN YOUR FREE TRAINING CERTIFICATION COURSE!

Download English Version

Download Spanish version

PUBLIC SCHOOL CAMPAIGN

This 2-sided educational tool is being distributed to 1150 California schools in an effort to reach more than 600,000 families. The idea is that parents and caregivers are the most important line of defense against childhood drowning. Parents and caregivers should consider themselves LIFEGUARDIANS who only rely on lifeguards as a second line of defense when attending public swimming areas.

Although we only distributed this flyer to California public schools, we encourage everyone to download either the English or Spanish language version to share with friends, family and co-workers in order to protect our most precious cargo Our S.A.F.E. model includes:

• SUPERVISION — 88% of child drownings occur with an adult nearby. Close, constant supervision is the number one prevention tool.

• ASSETS — When we have lapses in supervision, we should have secondary lines of defense to prevent harm, including pool fences, alarms, life jackets, signs and emerging technology.

• FACILITIES — No two bathtubs, pools, waterfronts or aquatics facilities are the same, so you must understand how to properly protect your precious cargo depending upon the particular circumstances of each environment.

• EDUCATION — Water competence, safe rescues and CPR are just as important as learning how to swim; maybe even more important.

LIFE JACKET DONATION

Last year during Roxie’s Wish Week, we donated 100 customized Meow Meow Foundation life jackets to Los Angeles County waterfronts. This year, we are donating 350(!) customized life jackets to the City of Los Angeles Parks & Recreation Department, which oversees 60 public pools, additional waterfronts, summer camps and a wonderful free swim lesson program for underprivileged children and families.

We are proud to work with the City and County of Los Angeles as they continue to provide outstanding drowning prevention and recreational resources to millions of people. Last year, we were honored to speak in front of 400 county aquatics professionals. We were also honored to receive the Community Compassion Award from the LA County Public Health Department.

Life jackets must be worn by children and adults who cannot swim or are learning how to swim. Life jackets must also be worn by anyone on a boat, kayak, paddle board or other vessel out on a waterfront. The vast majority of open water drowning victims were not wearing life jackets.

WATER WATCHER LANYARD DONATION

88% of child drownings occur with an adult nearby. Lapses in adult supervision are primarily why children drown. The most effective way to keep children from drowning or suffering aquatics injuries is to pay attention to them in or around the water without interruption.

WATER WATCHER lanyards a popular, simple tool to keep children safe. The adult WATER WATCHER who wears the lanyard is responsible for close supervision of children in the water for 30 minutes. They are not distracted by friends, family, phones, alcohol or any other outside influence. Instead of a lifeguard, think of it like being your very own LIFEGUARDIAN — a guardian of young ones who deserve to be properly protected.

We are donating 500 of these popular WATER WATCHER lanyards to aquatics facilities, condo associations, businesses and individuals.

ORDER A FREE WATER WATCHER LANYARD!

SUMMER CAMP SAFETY ACCREDITATION

The camp industry is a $26 billion colossus that serves 25 million children and employs 1.5 million workers, most of them young people themselves, including many still in high school. With nearly 30,000 camps, you would think that this industry would be highly regulated since they are child care operations with high-risk activities including gun ranges with live ammunition, zip lines, high ropes courses, rock climbing, motorized vehicles, horseback riding, archery, axe throwing, acrobatics and more.

This is not the case at all. Half of our States do not regulate camps at all. The vast majority of states that do regulate camps fail to provide enough health and safety protections that families deserve. Sadly, sexual and physical harm at summer camps has been persistent and pervasive. ANd nobody like to talk about it. But what do.

The only summer camp accreditation provider is the American Camp Association (ACA). Sadly, the ACA invests a lot of money on camp lobbyists and public relations to defeat common sense health and safety legislation. Parents and guardians are generally unaware that the ACA prioritizes protections for camps over protections for kids.

We are partnering with some of the nation’s leading health, safety, recreation and camp experts to produce unbiased, child-centric model standards and accreditation curriculum to help stakeholders make better informed decisions that maximize benefits and minimize harm.

BEHAVIOR CHANGE RESEARCH CAMPAIGN

Drowning prevention efforts began to impact the public in the 1980s-1990s. Drowning deaths decreased as awareness increased. But over the last two decades, childhood drowning has increased yet again. And over the last decade, more children 1-4 have died of drowning than any other injury. Drowning remains the second leading cause of unintentional injury death for kids 5-14. But for some reason, healthcare providers and government agencies and most individuals do not recognize drowning as the national childhood safety epidemic that it is.

The water safety industry continues to declare the importance of swimming lessons and pool fences and life jackets. At the same time, we know that 9 in 10 child drownings occur with an adult nearby and 8 in 10 drowning victims are male. We know that, for every 1 child who fatally drowns, another 8 will need medical attention.

Drowning numbers remain the same year after year, yet we continue to offer the same solutions year after year. Not any longer. We are proud to begin an unprecedented journey with the behavior change agency known as FOR GOODNESS SAKES so that we can look at drowning prevention through an entirely different research lens and communicate innovate solutions to America. This is an exciting, unique endeavor with limitless potential to understand how we can put a proverbial seat belt on this issue once and for all.

We are seeking strategic partners to support this important work. Contact doug@meowmeowfoundation.org.