|
Josh The Otter Will Be at a Lincoln Fire House on October 3rd
Josh the Otter will be at the Open House and Fire Prevention Day for the South East Fire/Rescue Station at 7700 Eiger Drive (Hwy 2 and Pine Lake) on October 3rd. Check back soon for details
Josh The Otter Will be at the Safety Fair in York
On August 21st, Josh the Otter will be at the Safety Fair in York from 9:00 a.m. to 12:00 p.m. Bring your children to meet Josh and pick up some Water Safety Education materials. Call 402-730-5838 or email us at
This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it
for more details.
The Joshua Collingsworth Memorial Foundation will be at the Upper Midwest Regional Pediatric Conference
The Joshua Collingsworth Memorial Foundation will be attending the Upper Midwest Regional Pediatric Conference in South Sioux City Nebraska on September 9th and 10th. This is an excellent opportunity for us to get the message of water safety education to a group of pediatric nurses and doctors. We will be at the Marina Inn.
Event at the Prestige Was a Great Success. Thank you.
The Joshua Collingsworth Memorial Foundation wishes to express our sincere gratitude to Lisa of High Heel the Band and special guest band members (pictured above) who stepped in to help out Thursday evening. Great music, food and drinks could be had all evening at the Prestige in Omaha.
Great job by our Executive Director Meghan Sodoro and her 9 hosts who planned and put this event on. Thanks to all the volunteers who manned the door, sold Cox Classic and raffle tickets. All total, with raffle sales, Cox Classic Ticket sales and door donations, the Foundation raised just over $5,000. Thanks to everyone for participating.
Blake and Kathy Collingsworth
Join us at The Prestige in Omaha on July 22nd for a Benefit Concert.
 Come join us for a night of fun, filled with good people and good music! There will be a happy hour from 5:30 PM - 7:00 PM, with drink specials and appetizers. The High Heel Band will take the stage at 7:00 PM and we will dance the night away!
The cost is $20.00 at the door, and includes your admission to the show, free appetizers and access to the drink specials. 100% of the proceeds will go to benefit The Joshua Collingsworth Memorial Foundation.
We will also be participating in this year's Cox Classic's "Tickets for Charity." We will be selling Cox Classic tickets at The Prestige event. The cost for a Cox Classic day ticket is $10.00. Again, 100% of the proceeds from these tickets will go to benefit Joshua's Foundation.
A special THANK YOU to all of our Young Professional Hosts: Amol Batra, Josh Boesch, Mark Burgers, Nate Hobson, Harry Hoch, Michael Hoch, Tyler Laflin and Patrick Sodoro! Your commitment to helping us promote water safety and save lives is greatly appreciated!"
Please considering joining us for our 2nd Annual Memorial Benefit!
Friday evening June 11th at the Grand Manse in downtown Lincoln, NE. 129 North 10th Street.
There will be a dinner will be catered by the Venue Restaurant with a live and silent auction.
Come see some of the wonderful things that have happened in the last year to promote the safety of young children.
On Saturday morning at Yankee Hill Country Club 7600 San Mateo Lane.
There will be a golf tournament for the adults with fun contests and prizes for all.
Free to children of all ages starting at noon on Saturday we will have many fun and educational activities to enjoy.
Please Print and mail or fax the form below to P.O. Box 21712, Lincoln, NE 68542. Fax 402-420-2868.
WONDERFUL NEWS!
Because of generous and caring sponsorship by Vergith Contracting in Henderson, Nevada the entire Clark County public school district has 1,000 copies of the book "Josh The Baby Otter" in their schools. This includes all the Las Vegas and surrounding cities in Clark County. They have also purchased and distributed 6,000 coloring books and stickers to give to every child in those classrooms to take home. With a coloring book in hand and sticker on their shirt, every child will go home the day of reading the early childhood education book and discuss water safety with their parents.
A HUGE THANK YOU,
Dan and Patricia
For Helping us to educate all young children to stay away from water unless they are with an adult.
2010
Thank you to the Atlantic IA Kiwanis Club
We wanted so say thank you to the Atlantic IA Kiwanis Club for purchasing 110 Books for the Atlantic IA School Systems Kindergarten Class. The School felt that these books were a necessity and the Kiwanis Club stepped up to the plate like they always do. Thank you again for helping us in our mission of Early Childhood Education about Water Safety.
Thank you to the Merritt Island FL Rotary Club
We wanted to say thank you to the Merritt Island FL Rotary Club for purchasing 500 books for the Merritt Island FL School System Kindergarten Class. The books were very well received and appreciated by the school system. The Rotary Club has sent out a challenge to the other Rotary Clubs in Brevard County to get this into every school district. Thank you very much.
Great Book Review about Josh The Otter
We received a great review from Clarks Isaacs of Clark's Eyes On Books Visit their site when you get a chance for a reviews on other great children's books. Here is what they had to say:
"Blake Collingsworth wrote this book “Josh The Baby Otter” to promote water safety for young children. The Center for Disease Control states we are losing three children each day to drowning accidents. Collingsworth has his own cause; he lost his young son Joshua and started a foundation to promote water safety for 1 to 4 year-old children.
Included in this book is a CD which reads the book aloud, plays a special song regarding water safety, has a spot promotion for a radio station, and contains a pledge for kids to take regarding going to the pool and not being alone. Also, the message is clear, learn to float. Reading the book to children, playing the CD, and discussing the issue of not being alone is great, but the main message is awareness. The children in the 1 – 4 age group can wander off to the family pool or a neighbor’s pool, but the more alert the parents become about dangers lurking near pools when summer-time comes around, the less likely there will be a drowning. This book and its message are very highly recommended."
The 2010 Joshua Memorial Benefit dates have been set! June 11th & 12th
Please keep these dates open and plan on joining us for an evening of dinner, live and silent auctions and entertainment on Friday, June 11 and for golf the next morning on June 12th.
We will be adding more information about the weekends activities soon. Now and always we thank everyone for your continued support!
NEW FRIENDS AND PARTNERS IN OUR QUEST TO SAVE YOUNG LIVES!
Kathy and I are proud to acknowledge our new found friends from across the pond and to tell you about the important work they are doing. Katherine and Andrew Plint of Laidley QLD Australia and the Hannah's Foundation are joining forces with Joshua's foundation in the international fight to reduce drowning tragedies. Katherine and Andrew lost their precious Hannah just eight month's before we lost Joshua. They are promoting the books and signs in Australia and Katherine is finishing some new materials of her own that we will be helping to distribute here. Please visit their web site when you can. TOGETHER WE WILL ALL MAKE A DIFFERENCE.
 
JULY
The weather was great and so were the visitors! We had a great turn out at the Lincoln Children's Zoo. Thanks to everyone for visiting us and hearing the story of Josh The Baby Otter. Thanks to John, Randy and everyone at the zoo for a wonderful day. Please visit the zoo and when you are there say hi to Josh's friends at the otter exhibit.
  
We are happy to announce "JOSH THE OTTER DAY" at the LINCOLN CHILDREN'S ZOO!
1222 South 27th, Sunday, July 5th from 12:00 noon to 4:00 p.m.
JUNE
Well it was a lot bigger endeavor than I would have ever imagined. Mostly because of the size and scope that the 1st Annual Joshua Collingsworth Memorial Benefit turned into. Everyone who joined us for the day, who contributed and volunteered, helped to make this a fantastic event. Kathy and I can't say THANK YOU enough. Below is a picture of the proclamation certificate we received from the Mayor of Lincoln. Proclaiming June 12, 2009 "Joshua Collingsworth Memorial Day" and "Water Safety and Awareness Day". It was an honor for us and to Joshua. Thanks Lincoln and Mayor Buetler. All total for the event we had 124 golfers, 280 dinner guests and over 290 prizes, raffle items or auction items. Lincoln's own KLKN channel 8 an ABC affiliate's, Rod Fowler and Lauren Silverman were in attendance to help present the live auction items and introduced Joseph Hall who entertained at the end of the evening. Boy did he ENTERTAIN! Thank you to Rod, Lauren, and Joseph. We will be adding more pictures as they come in and other information about the days activities. THANKS AGAIN!
Below: 1. The Mayor of Lincoln, Chris Beutler, Kathy and I receiving the proclamation. 2. Just a small part of the dining area. 3. Joseph Hall with two of our friends who were there that evening. 4. A small section of the auction items. 5. A friends son riding a motorized cooler, part of a live auction item. 6. Another entire room of auction items.
  
  
MAY
The 1st annual Joshua Memorial Day is scheduled for June 12th, 2009 at the Yankee Hill Country Club. We plan on making it a full family event: A Golf tournament, fun around the pool to learn about infant and toddler water safety. Clowns with balloon animals for the kids, a silent and live auction and some very special guests. Live entertainment provided by America's Got Talent - runner up, Elvis Impersonator "Joseph Hall"
Brochure below lists all the days scheduled events and pricing. Please call or email us, for further information.
MANY GROUP READINGS SCHEDULED IN THE AREA!
We have already scheduled 12 different schools in Lincoln to read to pre K, Kindergarten, 1st grade and 2nd grade students. With many more to come we hope. We have also started scheduling some apartment complexes pool opening parties in order to read the book and talk to the children about water safety.
"Josh the Baby Otter" books now available. Click on the "Josh The Baby Otter" book cover on our home page. www.joshtheotter.org or print out an order form in the "Water Safety Tab" section of this site.
If you would like to see a sample of the book and hear some of the book read and song go to:
www.youtube.com and type in the search bar " josh the baby otter ".
Wednesday 18th of February, a few of us read the new book to 80 Kindergarten children and introduced
them to Josh. The looks on their faces was priceless.
  
There has also been a wonderful addition to the book a new song called "Learn to Float" which will be included in CD form inserted in the back cover.
  
The story tells of Josh the otter when he first learns to float and the importance of being with an adult at all times while in and around the water. We hope to promote water safety awareness in a fun way to children and adults alike. We plan on distributing these books to as many schools and daycare centers as possible, in the hopes of making a memorable impact on all children before the swimming season begins this summer. The book also promotes infant & toddler water training courses.
January
Nebraska Children's Home Society.
We are proud and happy to announce the successful completion of the NCHS Joshua Collingsworth Center. We wish to thank all those who contributed to the remodeling efforts and to all who joined us on the 27th for the dedication and open house. If you did not get a chance to come by, I am sure the staff would be more than happy to give tours. We are so glad that through Joshua's Foundation we have been able to help bring these new counseling services to NCHS through our remodeling efforts. We believe these new services will be a great benefit to not only Lincoln, but the entire State.
Kitchen area before and after remodeling. Children's play area before and after remodeling.
   
Lincoln YMCA has finalized their new infant & toddler water classes.
Through sponsorship the Joshua Collingsworth Memorial Foundation is very proud to have been an intricate part of bringing these classes to Lincoln. We hope the Lincoln YMCA's work with these classes will be an inspiration to many other YMCA's throughout the midwest.
The six week courses begin this Monday, February 2nd, 2009. The first two classes are already full but new class schedules are being formed now.
For more information contact the lincoln YMCA listed below:
Melissa Pavlish
Aquatics Director
Cooper Branch
6767 South 14th Street
(402) 323-6412
FACE-UP FIRST AND JOSHUA'S FOUNDATION ARE WORKING TOGETHER TO MAKE DIFFERENCE.
The Joshua Foundation is proud to announce our support of Jeanie Neal and her infant & toddler swimming program, "FACE UP FIRST". Jeanie is the aquatics director at Brownell-Talbot school in Omaha, NE. She has been developing this plan for years in order to save children's lives and promote early water safety and swimming habits. Face Up First is a program that can be adapted with other swimming programs. Jeanie will train aquatics directors in order to make her program available in other area's. We believe Jeanie's program is a positive for children and wish to inform everyone about FACE UP FIRST in order to teach children the beginning fundamental of swimming. Please contact Jeanie for information about teaching certification or enrolling your children in her classes.
Show your support for Joshua's Foundation with this new sticker for your car or store front window.
Two sizes 3.5" X 3.5" or 5" X 5".
No cost just email us your address and we will send you one.
2008
"STEWIE THE DUCK LEARNS TO SWIM" UPDATED 10/20
This last fall the Foundation distributed over 2000 copies of the children's water safety book "Stewie the Duck Learns to Swim". All the schools in Lincoln, Omaha and many other surrounding towns, received the books for story time in the kindergarten and 1st grade class rooms. This fun and educational book tells the story of Stewie learning the importance of keeping himself and his siblings away from water unless they are with an adult.
We know that adults are aware of the dangers of water, we believe the education of young children to stay away from water unless accompanied by an adult is one of the main components in preventing future drowning accidents.
For information about receiving copies of this book please contact us through this site.
|
