New Jersey Swim Safety Alliance Honored by the International Swimming Hall of Fame

For Immediate Release:

Judith Leblein Josephs

judith@njswimsa.org

732-319-5814

The New Jersey Swim Safety Alliance was recently honored at the 61^st Annual Honoree Induction Weekend for the International Swimming Hall of Fame. The NJSSA was honored along with the Class of 2026 including Olympians, worldwide aquatics champions, trailblazers, and innovators.

NJ Swim Safety Alliance Board Members, Chuck Warner, Doreen Gualtieri, Nancy Curtis, and Judith Lebl

NJ Swim Safety Alliance Board Members, Chuck Warner, Doreen Gualtieri, Nancy Curtis, Joe Oehme and J

The NJ Swim Safety Alliance was formed by Founding Chair Coach Chuck Warner during the COVID Pandemic as a vehicle to lobby for the safe reopening of pools, swim schools, aquatic venues, and activities. What started as a group of aquatic safety advocates who only knew of each other in separate disciplines has become one of the most powerful aquatic safety coalitions in the United States.

After successfully holding three NJ Water Safety Summits, creating the first ever New Jersey Water Safety Strategy and becoming a strong legislative presence in Trenton, the NJSSA is committed to reducing drowning in the Garden State by 30% by the year 2030.  NJSSA has put New Jersey on the forefront of water safety education as the third state to answer the challenge of the National Water Safety Plan to create a state specific water safety strategy. Third only to California and Hawaii, New Jersey Swim Safety Alliance is now helping other states to do the same. After three years of work and over 200 collaborators, the NJ Water Safety Strategy is the blueprint for making water safety education and learning to swim an essential skill for those in the Garden State.

NJSSA has been the recipient of many awards including the New Jersey Recreation and Park Association “Friend of Recreation and Parks Award, the NJRPA Excellence in Education Award and now the 2026 ISHOF Aquatic Award.

The most notable recent accomplishment is the successful passage of the “Every Child a Swimmer” legislation that will require all school districts to distribute water safety information to parents of school age children that will also list Swim Schools who meet a rigorous screening and also those that provide FREE or Reduced swim instruction. NJSSA will serve as the clearinghouse for this statewide effort.

Educational events such as the World’s Largest Swim Lesson and the NJ Water Safety Day at Breakwater Beach Waterpark in Seaside Heights, NJ joins other initiatives of the NJSSA such as their Job Board, May is Water Safety Month Guide, Bathing Code Regulations Reviews, “We Love Lifeguards” evening events also at Breakwater Beach Waterpark, webinars, Captain Jack Water Rescue Canine Program to name a few.

For the past several years, NJSSA has partnered with the New Jersey Recreation and Park Association and Dolfin Swim Wear in a statewide Bathing Suit & Goggle Drive to provide bathing suits and goggles to kids throughout New Jersey so they can attend FREE swim lessons in their communities. The suits and goggles are collected by non-profits, municipal pools, waterparks, church groups to only name a few. Manufacturers also contribute to this “all volunteer” campaign which collected over 10,000 bathing suits and distributed over 6,000 in one year alone. Children who hope to attend these swim lessons often are turned away because they don’t have appropriate swim wear. Kids in our cities who want to visit a supervised pool in a heat emergency are often turned away due to not owning a bathing suit. These suits can save a life, by allowing the kids to enter supervised aquatic venues and be safe and cool!