beach safety advocacy

One of the main reasons that we started the Determined2Heal Foundation was to promote national beach safety and educate people about the dangers of the Delaware beaches. My family was horrified to see two other people admitted to the Maryland Shock Trauma unit with spinal cord injuries from the very same Delaware shoreline in the very same week that I was injured. As it turns out, due to beach replenishment projects, spinal cord and brain injuries are not that uncommon.

Susan Levine of the Washington Post began investigating the alarming number of injuries. It was difficult to get data because victims are flown to a number of different hospitals, and some injuries result in drowning because the person cannot move to save himself. We were shocked to discover that the beach injuries have tripled from last year on the same beaches. Yet the beach-net.com website (“Your Virtual Vacation on the Delaware/Maryland/Virginia Beaches”) lists only the dangers of sunburn under its “beach safety” links.

We feel that this problem has been “under reported” because town officials and property owners do not want their property values to decline based on fears about the safety of their beaches. What used to be considered a “fluke” or a “freak accident” is now becoming more and more common. At this point, even the lifeguards are concerned.

Determined2Heal would like more people to know about the dangers of the beach, and what swimmers and surfers can do to keep themselves safe. Our current mission is to pursue and implement change on the Delaware shoreline and on beaches nationally:

• Implementation of a universal flag signage system that can be monitored daily by the lifeguards on coastline to ensure communication to all those who step foot on the beaches.  The signs will be placed at the entrance to all beaches (private and public) communicating through a flag system the current beach conditions.

• Up-to-date statistical analysis of beach replenishment's which will provide important information and will assess what steps need to be taken to making our beaches safer.

• Educate lifeguards about side affects from replenishment's and spinal cord injury rescue techniques and training programs.