Stew Leonard Water Safety on NBC Today July 3rd

 have been a friend, customer and fan of Stew Leonard for many years and have been incredibly supportive of the “Stew Leonard III Water Safety Foundation”. Stew and his wife Kim will appear on the “Today” show this week and I want to help Stew to spread the word.

-Bill

 

On January 1, 1989, a 21-month old toddler lost his life in a drowning accident. This sparked his parents to pledge that they would do everything in their power to prevent this tragedy from striking other families, since drowning is the leading cause of accidental death in children under five.

In 1990, that toddler’s parents, Kim and Stew Leonard, founded the Stew Leonard III Water Safety Foundation in memory of their son. Since this time, the Foundation has raised more than $1 million dollars to go towards water safety awareness and education, including providing swim scholarships and lifeguard training, along with writing and publishing two children’s books on water safety: Stewie the Duck Learns to Swim and Swimming Lessons with Stewie the Duck. EXPANDING THE MISSION Stew Leonard, Jr. is the president and CEO of Stew Leonard’s food stores in Connecticut and New York. In addition to his work to promote water safety, through his family-owned food stores, he also became aware of the need to encourage healthy eating among children. The number of children who are at risk for being seriously overweight has tripled in the past two decades, and only two percent of children currently meet the recommendations outlined in the dietary guidelines.

Taking a cue from the success of the foundation’s water safety educational efforts, in 2006 the Leonard’s broadened the focus to “promoting safe and responsible growth and development in kids through nutritional awareness and water safety.” The foundation changed its name to the Stew Leonard III Children’s Charities to reflect this new mission.

FOR MORE INFO ON THE FOUNDATION CLICK HERE