Water safety and drowning prevention have always been part of our Goldfish DNA. They’re present in every lesson, every Water Safety Presentation, and every team training session. While these are constantly driving our teams, the need for water safety education ramps up as we get ready to celebrate summer, and what better time to prepare our kiddos for a safer summer than National Water Safety Month in May!

Water Safety Month is a fintastic opportunity to teach our swimmers extra water safety and drowning prevention necessities. In 2021, we introduced the award-winning Safer Swimmer Pledge campaign, amping up water safety awareness for our kiddos, team members and communities, and we’re excited to see how much it’s taken off since then!

2023: The Biggest & Best Safer Swimmer Pledge Year Yet!

What started as water safety tips and amazing partnerships has blossomed into a truly fintastic month-long celebration! As our Goldfish family continues to grow, so has the Safer Swimmer Pledge, and we’re excited to share just how GOLDEN this year’s pledge drive truly was!

Taking The Pledge

Above all else, the Safer Swimmer Pledge introduces our little swimmers (and parents!) to five water safety must-knows as they get ready to tackle their epic summers:

  1. Whether I’m at home, the beach or pool, I will play it cool and follow the rules.

  2. When it comes to swimming, water safety is key, that’s why I will always have an adult with me!

  3. When I’m around water or on a boat, I can wear a life jacket to help me float.

  4. No matter how deep the water may be, I will always jump in with my feet.

  5. If I see a swimmer in need, I know how to help them indeed! First, I’ll throw them something to float, then I’ll go and get an adult.

We have loved sharing these vital water safety tips with our Goldfish families for three years in a row! These five simple statements encourage everyone to not only be mindful of water safety during the month of May, but every time they’re in or around the water!

Celebrate Our Swimmers!

In 2023 alone, over 16,600 swimmers, parents and team members took the Safer Swimmer Pledge. WOW! If that’s not something to CELEBRATE, we don’t know what is!

If you know Goldfish, you know our celebrations are never small. We took this as an opportunity to celebrate not one but FIVE finspiring kiddos for their dedication to water safety!

In honor of the Golden Years, we randomly chose little fish throughout the month to receive one year of FREE swim lessons, giving them the platform to make BIG waves in life, and to practice their water safety skills all year round – after all, swimming is ALWAYS in season at Goldfish! Luciana, Om, and Savreen will all be swimming their way into a safer, golden year courtesy of the Goldfish Swim School Franchise. We can’t wait to witness the waves they make for water safety as they continue to learn and grow at their local Goldfish Swim Schools!

But wait! They aren’t the only little fish winning BIG! We’re excited to announce our newest addition to the Safer Swimmer Pledge: the Wavemaker for Water Safety!

Blessing from the Cleveland East Side school in Ohio has been a finspiration to her friends, family and community throughout the month of May! Sharing the Safer Swimmer Pledge with everyone she possibly could – more than any other kiddo in North America, to be exact! She helped us help each one of them start their summer off the best way possible – safely!

On behalf of the Goldfish Swim School Franchise, Blessing will receive one year of swim lessons, along with a Pool Party for her and her friends to celebrate being Wavemakers at her local Goldfish Swim School! We are so incredibly proud and swimpressed with her passion for water safety, and we’re excited to see how she celebrates with her friends and family!

The celebration doesn’t stop there! With summer on the horizon, there’s no better time to award our grand prize of a $5k Beach Getaway!

Let’s put our fins together for Garick from Goldfish Swim School in Glen Oaks, New York! Garick and his family will be heading off to their very own tropical escape, courtesy of the Goldfish Swim School Franchise. When taking the Safer Swimmer Pledge, Garick was preparing for a safer start to his summer, but now he’ll get the chance to use those tips (and swimming skills, of course!) on his family vacay! While Bubbles is a little jealous he can’t tag along, we know they’ll have a blast soaking up the sun and splashing around as a family, and Bubbles will be there in spirit with the Safer Swimmer Guard Tags!

We ?? Our Teams of Safer Swimmer Champions!

In true Goldfish fashion, the celebrations don’t stop with our little swimmers! Every single Goldfish Swim School puts their heart and soul into teaching kiddos around North American life-saving skills, and the month of May proves just how passionate our team members really are.

This year alone, over 4,600 pledge takers were referred to the Safer Swimmer Pledge by a Goldfish team member, and that’s not including the kiddos they taught water safety skills to all month long!

Out of 145+ fincredible schools, one went truly above and beyond in the name of water safety! We’re honored to share the single school with the most pledges – GSS Milford! The Milford, Massachusetts school brought in over 1,400 Safer Swimmer Pledges this year, and what better way to celebrate than with a VIP Pool Party!

Who could the VIP be? Bubbles and his friends think it might be a GOLD medalist 😉

This special, golden guest will be joining the GSS – Milford team later on this year for a swimsational party to commemorate the impressive impact they’ve had on their community as water safety advocates, and to continue to spread awareness!

In the meantime, the Milford team will have the opportunity to celebrate one of their team members – this year’s Safer Swimmer Champion! With over 460 pledge referrals, Milford team member Jennifer Cruz truly stole the show! She exceeded expectations (and previous records!) to take home the prize of $2023 in GOLD-HARD cash for her to use towards her golden goals.

We are so proud and finspired by Jennifer and the entire Milford team. Their passion and dedication are positively unmatched, and we are remarkably lucky to call them our Goldfish family!

Fintastic Partners Make a Splash at Local Goldfish Swim Schools!

It’s safe to say that making waves for water safety is a team effort, and who better to help us spread awareness than our swimsational partners!

For the entire month of May, Speedo USA joined us in our mission to make swim lessons more accessible and help prepare kiddos around the country for their safer summer. Not only did they share our Safer Swimmer Pledge with their national community of swimmers, but they threw in a fintastic bonus for all of our wavemakers!

Speedo USA provided every Safer Swimmer Pledge taker with a 25% off coupon to go towards their next Speedo order, allowing kiddos to (swim)suit up in style just in time for their safer summers!

Speaking of style, our two favorite Olympians donned their medals as they headed out into the community to promote water safety and drowning prevention.

Ryan Murphy popped into Goldfish Swim School in Aliso Viejo, California to share some water safety tips and meet members of the community. He also took this as an opportunity to o-fish-ally sign the Safer Swimmer Pledge alongside local kiddo!

Meanwhile over in the Midwest, Cullen Jones headed out on tour, visiting not one but FOUR Goldfish Swim School locations throughout the Chicagoland area and Kansas City! Cullen shared his story with everyone he could, further emphasizing that learning to swim is a vital life skill necessary for everyone to know.

His dedication and passion to helping underserved children took him all the way to Kansas City, allowing him to partner with Goldfish – Overland Park and Goldfish – Lenexa to share the Safer Swimmer Pledge and encourage kiddos of all backgrounds to pursue the sport of swimming. Working hand-in-hand with the Boys & Girls Club of Kansas City, these two schools will be providing $35,000 worth of swim lessons to children in their community who may not have access to formal lessons. WOW! Talk about a Golden Experience!

Goldfish Gives Back

Since its inception, the Safer Swimmer Pledge has prompted conversations around water safety, but it has also made swim lessons more accessible!

Each year, the Goldfish Swim School Franchise commits to donating $1 for every pledge taken to the USA Swimming Foundation. As the philanthropic arm of USA Swimming, the USA Swimming Foundation is on a mission to make swim lessons more accessible for children all around the country. Aligning with their mission, Goldfish Swim School has donated over $230,000 from past Safer Swimmer Pledge campaigns and other initiatives prior to 2023.

Following this May, Goldfish Swim School Franchising will be donating an additional whopping $16,760 to the foundation!

While we’re thrilled about the results of this year’s Safer Swimmer Pledge and the impact it has had on communities across North America, we understand that none of this would be possible without the support and enthusiasm of our incredible teams and families.

We would like to thank our whole network of Goldfish families for helping us make waves for water safety and keep our kiddos on track to a safer, golden summer!