Foundation President Delivers Moving Presentation to Hundreds of Aquatics Professionals

Photo of some of the Parks and Rec aquatics professionals who attended the event. Photo credit: LA County Parks and Recreation Department

LOS ANGELES — The Los Angeles County Parks and Recreation Department recently invited Meow Meow Foundation President and co-founder Doug Forbes as a presenter to roughly 400 aquatics professionals

After Forbes’s daughter Roxie drowned in 2019 at Summerkids camp in Altadena, Forbes pressured the county’s health department to adopt camp and aquatics safety regulations based on his recommendations.

In June of 2022, three years after Roxie’s preventable death and only three months after Forbes’ wife died, the county adopted Roxie’s Swim Safe Ordinance and the Elena Matyas Camp Safety Ordinance.

As part of this year’s kick-off for the Swim Safe Ordinance, LA County Regional Recreation Director Joe Goss invited Forbes to speak with roughly 400 aquatics staffers from the nation’s largest county about his personal journey and his foundation’s mission.

“It was an honor and also a daunting proposition,” Forbes said. “On one hand it was an opportunity to impact lifeguards and aquatics supervisors, but on the other hand, I knew how this would trigger an abundance of emotional distress having to deep-dive into my personal nightmare.”

Forbes’ full presentation here.

Watch the brief video he used during his speech.

Doug Forbes gives 30-minute presentation. Photo credit: LA County Parks and Recreation Department