Community partners launch water safety month with Splash Safer event

At Watermelon Swim in Brooksville, children practiced CPR basics, learned how to wear a life jacket and talked through pool-fence safety as Hernando County opened Water Safety Month with a clear warning: drowning remains one of the state’s most serious threats to young children.

The Splash Safer event ran Saturday, May 2, from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. at 955 Candlelight Boulevard and was free and open to the public. Watermelon Swim held the second-year event in recognition of National Water Safety Month, with Tampa General Hospital, TGH Brooksville, TGH Spring Hill and Hernando County Fire Rescue all part of the effort.

Instead of relying on a lecture, organizers turned the day into a series of hands-on stations. Children moved from CPR to hydration, then to life-jacket use and pool-fence safety, giving families a chance to practice habits that can matter long before an emergency call. The event also included a Swim with a Firefighter component, along with community vendors, food trucks, giveaways, prizes and free swim lessons.

The timing was not accidental. Florida Department of Health says drowning is the leading cause of unintentional death for children ages 1 to 4 in Florida. The state recorded 119 child drownings in 2025, and nearly 80% of those victims were under age 3. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention also lists drowning as a leading cause of death for children.

That is why the local push landed in a county where pools, springs and waterways are part of everyday life. In Hernando County, prevention is not an abstract safety slogan. It is about knowing how to respond, how to build barriers around water and how to keep a child from reaching danger in the first place.

National Water Safety Month is coordinated by the Pool & Hot Tub Alliance with support from the American Red Cross, the National Drowning Prevention Alliance, the National Recreation and Park Association and the World Waterpark Association. In Brooksville, that broader campaign translated into something local and practical: free lessons, firefighter demonstrations and a partnership that put emergency responders and hospital staff in the same place as parents and children.

With Memorial Day approaching and summer activity about to accelerate, the message from Watermelon Swim and its partners was straightforward. Water safety starts before the first hot weekend of the season, and in Hernando County, the best protection is the one families put in place before they ever get near the water.