Our son Carter has been doing self-rescue lessons with Michael since he was 9mths old. We were at a hotel for his aunts wedding (he was the ring bearer). The morning of the wedding all the bridal party women left to go get their hair done so the guys were still at the hotel. It was an afternoon wedding so they went to swim in the morning before the wedding. Carter, who is 2 1/2yrs old, went to the pool with his dad and uncle. There was a hot tub and a pool which was 5’ deep. There was a 6yr old boy (who was wearing arm floats) was playing with Carter around the pool but not in it. The 6yr old boy then pushed Carter into the 5’ deep end of the pool. At this moment his dad and uncle were on the other side of the pool but still watching him. By the time it took them to get around the pool Carter had floated first and flipped to swim so he could get out at the ladder which was closest to him. When he went in it was silent, there was no splash or sound and we would have never expected someone else’s kid (let alone a kid who can’t swim) to push a younger kid that he didn’t know into the deep end of the pool. Thankfully, he had self-rescue lessons as well as refreshers and was being supervised. In the water seconds count and we dread the thought of what could have happened that day and thankfully we didn’t have to find out. Her wedding day (which is a happy occasion) could have very well taken a turn for the worse and been the same date we lost our son to drowning. Without self-rescue lessons and his amazing instructor Michael Petrella who has taught these skills to Carter since he was an infant, our lives could have been drastically changed forever. What we also found ironic is we already had Carter’s next refresher lessons scheduled and it was only 2 days away from when this incident happened.

Tara Keck

Milo was taught self-rescue at 6 months old and again at 20 months. Two months after his first refresher was the accident. He fell into my parents pool May 25, 2015. Memorial Day that year will forever be etched in my head. We were having a family get together at my moms, and outside in the backyard playing. My parents have a slide to their pool and my husband was letting Milo go down it and then catching him before he went into the water. Since the water was too cold to swim in at the time. He did this many times as Milo was having so much fun! Something we now both regret. After a couple hours playing we all went in to eat and let the kids calm down. At the time of the accident we were all chatting inside the house when we realized Milo wasn’t with us. There were 6 adults and 4 kids, except a kid was missing. We searched the entire house before realizing he got outside. Through 6 adults and a locked slider-he made it out with no one noticing. We found him face up floating in the deep end of the pool (10' deep). He was floating patiently for someone to come get him. My brother in law dove in to get him out of pure adrenaline. Once I got around to him he saw me and began to cry. He was scared and shaking. But he was fine, he was alive and he was safe. He was so scared but stayed so calm until he knew he could let it out. I look back at this picture and it does not bring me joy any longer. You see, this is the last picture we took as a family before the accident.

This picture, had it not been for self-rescue, would be the last picture I would have ever taken of my first born son. This picture just makes me think of the what-ifs. What if he didn’t have training? What if we paid better attention? What if I didn’t sacrifice the time to bring him to Michael? I know what the results would have been had he not had this training. I know that sinking feeling of seeing your kid in the water. Knowing they got by you and snuck out. Knowing the absolute worst that would have happened to Milo, had he not been trained. He would not have been floating on his back waiting for us. This would have been the last family picture ever taken with him in it. He was 22 months old and hadn’t even had time to find out what his favorite color was. Almost 4 years later and he is an amazing big brother to Logan and Dawson - who is now the same age as Milo was at the time of the accident. He loves kindergarten and is learning to ride a bike without training wheels. He plays soccer, but TBall is his favorite. Also, his favorite color is green! Because of self-rescue, we have had so many more special and memorable moments with this beautiful child. So thank you from the bottom of my heart. Because you saved my child's life that day and you weren't even there. You are a blessing to our family.

Courtney Holstege