When Blog for Arizona interviewed Phoenix Mayor Kate Gallego in July 2022, expressed her regret that she and the city had not done enough to communicate the need to be safe around pool areas to prevent child drownings, saying “One drowning is too many. The goal is to have zero.”
This year, with spring here and summer fast approaching, the Mayor of the fifth-largest city in the country appeared on Phoenix’s Channel 12 News to stress the need to stay safe around all pool areas, announcing the Drowning Zero Campaign, setting a goal of zero drownings.
During her comments, the Mayor also called for “zero barrier-free pools with kids” to save lives, commenting that “we have lost too many people already.”
Calling these drownings, whether child or adult, “heartbreaking for everyone,” the Mayor called these preventable drownings “every parent’s worst nightmare.”
Ms. Gallego also informed viewers that the city, along with the YMCA, offers $15 swimming lessons, for children and adults, at the city pool sites. The Mayor said she enrolled her son in the program and he learned to swim, commenting that “as a mother and mayor, you just feel so much better when the young people in your life have taken swim lessons and you know they’re a little bit safer.”
She also cited the Phoenix Fire Department recommendation that everyone takes CPR classes because anyone can “be the first person on the scene who can help save a life.”
The Mayor also said there was a possibility to partner with the city to put a barrier around a pool, saying “There’s real solutions to save lives. We should be able to get to zero drownings.”
Later on social media, the Mayor posted:
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