• Water Safety Awareness 5K Recap

This event was several months in the making, and it was spearheaded by Wildomar resident Jodi Pesicka along with Toni Bravo-Rousseau. Both of these brave women are the mothers of children that survived near drownings.

You'd never imagine the amount of time, prep work, sweat and worry that goes into an event that is less than two hours from the public's point of view... unless you've done something similar yourself.

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The event was named after Jodi's daughter Justine Lee: The Justine Lee Pesicka Memorial Foundation Water Safety Awareness 5k Run/Walk. 

Here are the two shirts that were seen at the 5K. The black and purple one was worn by the volunteers and staff. The white with blue lettering was worn by the runners.

Justine died in 2013 at the age of 24, more than 20 years after the incident that forever changed the Pesicka family's lives.

Toni's seven year old daughter Summer is in hospice, though she was brought out to Marna O'Brien park to be at the event, she faces many challenges daily, and needs round the clock care.

Toni Bravo-Rousseau, Robin Dixon, Jodi Pesicka and Summer.

According to WHO, in the United States: drowning is the second leading cause of unintentional injury death in children aged 1-14 years.

It's as silent as it is avoidable, and Jodi and Toni want to get the word out to parents and caregivers of children to not take their child's safety around water lightly. 

It only takes a moment for a drowning to occur, and the damage lasts a lifetime... if the child lives at all.

Toni Bravo-Rousseau, in the black shirt, looks at one of the exhibits that showed many near drowning survivors. The names of the survivors, and the number of years since their near drownings goes as follows. From Left to Right at the top: Ashleigh (11); Isaiah (7); Joey (10) ; Ivan (1); Owen (6) ; Damion (17); Summer (6); Angelina (4). Down the right side: Blake (2); Gabriel (3); Aiden (6). From left to right on the bottom: Adam (19); Bradley (25); Harper (2); Kurt (16); Matthew (4); Lucy (2). Down the left side: Noah (1); Niel (18).   

Water Safety Awareness was the point of the event. Though it was also a chance for the community to get together and have a great morning too. 

It was a good showing for a inaugural 5K. There were more than 75 timed runners, and about half that many walkers.

The first finisher, Mario Trujillo of Lake Elsinore, made the run in 18:03.

The snack bar was dispensing free Go-Nutz donuts, bananas, coffee, water and other things. There were also many different vendors and exhibit booths to visit. Take a look at the promotional video that THINK Together from Wildomar Elementary did for this event. It's as informational as it is cute.

All the money raised from the event will be going to help pay for infant float lessons for families that can't afford them. 

One family made the run in good time, and still had the energy to give a thumbs up.

Please visit the facebook page for more information about the foundation or where to get local infant float lessons. Just leave a message and you're sure to get a timely response.

Link to The Justine Lee Pesicka Memorial Foundation FaceBook Page

Jodi and Toni were grateful for the tireless efforts of many different volunteers. Also key were the Wildomar Rotary and the Elks. Thing about volunteers, they don't do it for the recognition, but for the value of being a service to others, so no one is getting named here. ☺

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The only reason I started swimming was for water safety. Then, once I started falling in love with sports, I got more comfortable with it.

– Michael Phelps   

Wildomar Rap was glad to be a part of this event. 

• Wildomar Egg Hunt 2017

With threats of rain through much of Friday, the 2017 Eggstravaganza was greeted by blue skies with billowing white clouds. 

A worm's eye view of the impending stampede of five year old kids.

The event was from 9:00am to 11:00am and the four various age groups had two different opportunities to participate. All the while Robert Walker performed the roll of DJ again this year and kept the peeps alive with tunes from all eras.

From left to right: Councilmember Bridgette Moore, Little Miss Wildomar (daughter of Councilmember Nigg), Councilmember Dusting Nigg and Young Miss Wildomar Daisy Varney are getting the next group of egg hunters revved up to start.

As has become the custom in Wildomar, there was a special needs table that drew a handful of participants. 

Besides the egg hunt, there was a bouncy house, face painting, glitter tattoos and pictures with the Easter bunny available.

Face painting was a popular attraction.

In addition to the city's booth, the Elks Lodge had a booth and so did the San Gorgonio girl scouts. 

Scouting is a great activity for your child (boy or girl). Consider getting them involved.

The snack bar was being manned by the parent's of boy scout troop 332, and troop 2011 was raising money for a coming eagle scout project that will see a refurbishment of the base of the water tower at Marna O'Brien park.

Members of the Elks helped out at the prize table.

There were also some tables for young artists to get in some coloring time or fabricate some crafts.

This aspiring artist was seen applying the just the right color to the just the right spot.

Families lined up to get a photo with Peter Cottontail.

Be sure to mark April 29th as another day to come to Marna O'Brien park. There will be the first of two 5K runs of 2017. 

It's a very good cause, water safety awareness. 

Drowning is for keeps, and it is the number one cause of death in children under the age of five.

Even if you don't want to run, it's going to be a beautiful morning with lots of activity at the park starting at 8:00am. There will be vendors and other activities too... so come on out! ☺

Click image to visit facebook page

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This is going to be the greatest Easter Egg Hunt ever, and I'm going to find them all!

– Lucy van Pelt

Wildomar Rap would rather find all the Pokémon if given a choice.

• CERT: Drowning Awareness

CERT stands for Community Emergency Response Team.

Wildomar provides training a few times a year, at no cost to those taking the classes. They are about 20 hours long over the course of a weekend.

There are periodic refresher courses (for lack of a better term), and the most recent one was called Drowning Awareness. 

A lot of good info from 4 guest speakers

The first speaker, Irene Hjelmervik (Yell-Mer-Vick) was from Riverside University Health System. She went over a Water Safety quiz after we watched a video called Pool Safely.



Most of it was review, but some things were new on my radar. 

Top of the list: smartphones usage while watching kids around pools.

Our youngest is 23, and she was already 8 years old before I got my first cell phone, and that was before texting was a thing. 

I can see that if you're in charge of a child's safety, that you shouldn't even have your phone with you, much less in your hand. 

Considering that backyard drowning is 100% preventable, I'd think figuring it out would be pretty high on your list of things to accomplish.

Below is a short video that reminds you "sometimes there's no do over." 

☺

The second speaker, Lindsey Dolan, spoke on behalf of something called Infant Swimming Resource, aka ISR.

It's a type of swim class that teaches small children, as young as four months old, to flip onto their backs and float when in the water.

The lessons aren't traditional. They aren't just taught to splash around in the water, but how to get to their backs and float, even when fully clothed.

She related a story of how one child, about a year old, had an additional 12 pounds of clothes to deal with once they got soaked in the pool.

Lindsey had been an RN for 16 years before transitioning into being a ISR swim teacher, she's located in Murrieta.

The lessons are one on one, and come in a series (usually a week at a time, but often for two weeks). The lessons only last 10 minutes and each week is $100.

At first blush, $20 for ten minutes — times five, might seem pricey, but you have to ask yourself how valuable is your child's safety?

It reminds be of an old Bell Helmet slogan that went something like: If you have a ten dollar head, then buy a ten dollar helmet.

Live Like Jake is the name of a foundation (Bringing Awareness to Drowning Prevention) that awards "scholarships" to those that can't afford ISR lessons. There is a link at the bottom of this blog for those that want to learn more about it.

The last two guest speakers were Jodi Pesicka and Toni Bravo-Rousseau. Two mothers that had children drown and survive.

Heartbreaking stories about their daughters being there one moment, and finding them at the bottom of the pool the next.

Jodi's daughter Justine was estimated to be under water for five minutes. She suffered severe brain damage and was in the hospital for two months. The doctors didn't think expect her to live, but she did, and she lived for another 23 years.

She died in 2013, on Jodi's birthday, and is buried in Wildomar cemetery.
 

Link to an LA Times article about Justine, 12-15-1990 

Jodi Pesicka, Toni Bravo-Rousseau, Lindsey Dolan and Mayor Bridgette Moore.

Toni's daughter Summer drowned on Mother's Day 2011. Usually the pool was childproof, but the alarms were shut off that day. It was estimated that she was underwater for 10 minutes, and it took 36 minutes to get a pulse back. 

Two years ago, Summer had a 12 hour seizure and is now on a ventilator. 

I would love to push ISR for all families, because of the fact that the barriers were there [around my pool], everything was there, but if had my daughter in ISR I wouldn't be living this.

Toni Bravo-Rousseau

It goes without saying that one of the most important things you can do for your child is to get them watersafe. 

Also learned at tonight's meeting
Water Safety Awareness 5K is coming to Wildomar (Marna O'Brien Park) on April 15th 2017... more on this as it develops.

Links

Riverside County Water Safety

Lindsey Dolan ISR
Live Like Jake Foundation

Jodi Pesicka

Toni Bravo-Rousseau

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He who has a thousand friends has not a friend to spare, While he who has one enemy shall meet him everywhere.
— Ralph Waldo Emerson, 1803-1882

Wildomar Rap knows that mulligans only work on the golf course.