Drowning is silent and fast. It is the leading cause
of death among children
ages one to four, and the
second leading cause of death among
children ages five to 14. In as little as
20 to 60 seconds, a child can drown,
which will leave a heart-wrenching
absence in the lives of the surviving
family members forever.
On August 3, 2009, Casey and
Shannon McGovern were at home
when their two-year-old daughter,
Edna Mae, tragically drowned in their
backyard pool. From the time Casey
checked out of a grocery store to the
time Edna Mae was in the emergency
room, fighting for her life, only 29
minutes had passed. Half-an-hour was
all it took for this family to become
divided, never perfectly whole again.
Instead of dwelling on this
brokenness, Casey and Shannon
made it their life’s mission to educate
families on the risk factors associated
with drowning, so that they could
prevent others from experiencing
the same kind of heartache they felt,
and continue to feel, every single day
since Edna Mae passed. Thanks to her
connection with Bill Kent, International
Swimming Hall of Fame chairman of
the board, Casey was entrusted to lead
the Every Child a Swimmer program
beginning of 2022. This role is just one
of the many ways she has been able
to fulfill her “life’s mission,” and truly
save the lives of hundreds of children
and counting.
EDNA MAE MCGOVERN
Due to a misunderstanding with a
coworker, what would have been a
typical McGovern Monday in the
Florida summertime, with Shannon at
work and Casey watching their three
girls at home, turned into both parents
being home with the children, a friend,
named Veronica, of the oldest daughter,
Ally, coming over to hang out, and an
in-house meeting taking place between
Shannon and a new hiree.
“It was a wonky day that just kind of
got squashed,” says Casey. “We spent
that afternoon in the pool together,
getting out at staggered times. I got
out first with Em and put her down for
a nap, and then Shannon got out with
Taylor next, our middle girl who was
three at the time, and he allowed Ally
to stay in the pool with her friend since
they were older.
“While Em was napping, I went to
the grocery store. When I got back to
the house, Em met me as I walked in
with the groceries, up from her nap.
At around this same time, Ally and her
friend had gotten out of the pool and
were hanging out in Ally’s room, along
with Taylor. The new hiree had just
arrived at our house for his meeting
with Shannon, so the atmosphere was
just busier than normal.
“I put Em on the opposite side of
the kitchen counter from me as I started
putting the groceries away. About half
way through this task, Shannon called me
into the other room to ask a work-related
question; however, when I went back into
the kitchen, Em was no longer where I left
her. Naturally, my first inclination was to
just go and look for her by myself.
“I went from bedroom to bedroom
looking for her in the house, just taking
my time. Our backyard wasn’t even on
my radar at first because I didn’t view it
as a safety hazard. We had a backyard
fence, a pool with a fence around it and
a swingset, which had, up to this point,
always been places of joy and freedom
for our family.
“After I couldn’t find Em anywhere
in the house, I decided to go check
the swingset area because she loved
swinging. In order to get there, I had to
pass by the pool. I got about halfway
past the pool when I noticed her. She
was floating faceup, blue eyes wide
open and not moving a muscle.”
Casey ran through the gate and
jumped into the water, grabbing Em
and screaming out in horror. Thankfully,
Shannon heard her screams, and
rushed outside to help. He took Em
from his wife, brought her to land, and
started CPR.
“The new hiree was still there, and
he was actually the one who ended up
calling 911,” says Casey. “To this day, I
still remember the 911 operator telling
me that I wasn’t helping the situation.
That I needed to just put the phone on
speaker so that Shannon could hear
the operator walk him through the
compressions until the paramedics
arrived. I was too hysterical to do
anything but cry honestly.
“When the ambulance arrived, I
got into it with Em, and we went to the
hospital. She was immediately transferred
from our local hospital to a larger trauma
center in Fort Lauderdale, Fla. For the
first 72 hours, she was put on ice so they
could keep her temperature and swelling
down, but because of this, we weren’t
able to really touch her.
“As a mother, when your child is
hurting, all you want to do is care for
them and comfort them, but I wasn’t
allowed. They let us do a few little things
for her like brush her teeth, care for her
eyes and rub her feet, but it wasn’t the
same as picking her up and holding her.”
Within the first 24 hours of Em’s
drowning, the police had to interview both
Casey and Shannon at separate times, as
well as Ally and Taylor, so they could rule
it as either an accident or intentional act.
In Em’s case, it was ruled an accident, but
that could only be determined after the
four family members told their sides of
the tragic story.
“Drowning is a form of neglect
because it wouldn’t have happened under
proper supervision,” says Casey. “That’s
why the police have to get involved. That’s why child protective services have to
get involved. They’re getting involved to
prevent something like a drowning from
ever happening again in your household.”
Throughout that week, the
McGoverns were hoping and praying
for God to perform a miracle on their
little girl. “We had a prayer chain; we had
people come and lay hands on her; we
played worship music; we had people
reading her Bible scriptures and praying
for her,” says Shannon. “We did it all, but
by Wednesday, Casey came to me and
said that we needed to make a decision.
The medical staff kept doing these
tests on Em, and there just wasn’t any
improvement. As a mother, Casey had
an inkling that our daughter wasn’t there
anymore and in my opinion, no one
knows better than a mother.”
On that Wednesday, they made the
decision to donate Em’s organs so
that her life would help save the lives
of others. They were allowed to donate
everything but her eyes because her
eyes weren’t fully developed at the time
of her passing; she was too young. That
weekend, they further decided to take
Em off of life support, and after signing
the final paperwork, the family had 24
hours to say their goodbyes. Edna Mae
McGovern officially passed away on
Monday, August 10.
“Taylor was three years old at the
time, so she didn’t really understand
what was happening to her sister;
however, Ally was 11 years old, so she
definitely understood,” says Casey.
“I remember Ally asking me, ‘What’s
going to happen to us?’ And then
Shannon responded, ‘We’re still
going to be a family. We’re going to
be broken, but we’ll still be a family.’ I
think one of the greatest blessings of
our marriage is that when I’ve been
weak, Shannon’s been strong, and vice
versa, so we can always lean on each
other and count on each other.
“Eventually, we were both strong
enough to be able to walk away from
her. We left her in the hospital bed,
peacefully sleeping; she looked like a
perfect angel baby. Honestly, I think
Em was taken from us so that we
could do this work. When we were in
the hospital, we learned the statistics
and the reality of children drowning
incidents in the United States. We made
it our life’s mission to lower those
statistics and change that reality.”
On the day of Em’s memorial
service, Casey discovered she was
pregnant with a baby boy. It was the
chaos and focus this broken family
needed in order to kickstart their
healing. Outside of raising her son,
Casey was also able to heal through
educating the public on Em’s story.
“Within the first month of Em’s
passing, we created a website, which
was more for personal healing
purposes than anything else,” says
Casey. “But one thing led to another,
and anytime there was a speaking
engagement or invitation, I just
accepted it because educating the
public on pool safety in any capacity
felt like the right thing to do, and since
Em drowned, it has always felt like the
right thing to do for our family.”
EVERY CHILD A SWIMMER
The McGovern’s mission to make
“every child a swimmer” started with
Casey and Shannon sharing their story to other parents, and then pointing
those parents towards the appropriate
water safety resources. From there,
Casey tried teaching swimming lessons,
and the couple even considered
opening up a swim school of their own.
However, this fell through, and Casey
ended up taking a job with the Florida
Department of Health to run their
Drowning Prevention Program.
After being the Program Director
for almost eight years, Casey resigned
from the Florida Department of Health
because she felt called to do more. In
2020, she reached out to her friend,
Bill Kent, International Swimming Hall
of Fame chairman of the board, and
after quick and easy negotiations, she
became the Program Manager for Every
Child a Swimmer.
“The main goal of Every Child a
Swimmer is to provide Learn to Swim
scholarships to children who can’t afford
swimming lessons,” says Casey. “We
give money to swim schools — money
that was donated to us by organizations
in the industry — who then identify
children in their communities to serve,
through identifiers like food stamps, and
ultimately, teach them how to swim, free
of charge.
“We partner with swim schools
all throughout the United States, and
in 2023 alone, 610 kids, all over the
age of one, received Learn to Swim
scholarships, which equated to around
$150,000 in donations. Sometimes,
companies ask me how much I would
like them to donate, and I can’t answer
that question. All I can tell them is to
listen to their heart; to make a money
commitment that they feel called
to. Right now, my main focus as the
Program Manager is to develop working
relationships with swim schools, which
will hopefully continue to grow and
evolve over time, so that one day, Every
Child a Swimmer is partnered with every
swim school all throughout the world.”
As part of her Every Child a Swimmer program management tasks, Casey has worked to pass water safety education legislation in multiple states, as well as worked as the “middle-man” between pool/spa businesses and their donations to swim schools all throughout the nation so that more children learn how to swim, free of charge, lowering the unbearable death by drowning statistics.
In 2021, Casey helped pass and
implement legislation in Florida,
Georgia and Arkansas, along with five
other pending states, with the ultimate
goal of it getting passed all throughout
the country. “The legislation requires
all schools, K through 12, to share
water safety tips and education at the
beginning of each school year, along
with where to go in order to acquire local
swim lessons,” says Casey.
A drowning can occur in as little
as 2 inches of water; being educated
on water safety is the first step to
preventing a tragedy from happening.
In the United States, an average of
3,500 to 4,000 people drown every
year, which is an average of 10 fatal
drownings per day. Drowning doesn’t
discriminate; it can happen to anyone
at any time. 23 percent of child
drownings happen during a family
gathering near a pool. 87 percent
of drowning fatalities, for children
younger than five, happen at home, in
pools or hot tubs. Children, ages five to
17 years old, are more likely to drown in
natural water, such as ponds and lakes.
The CDC reports that for every
one fatality, at least eight people
are drastically impacted, which is
something Casey refers to as the ripple effect. “Outside of our family being
affected by Em’s drowning, our neighbors,
community, church, hospital staff, first
responders, etc. were also affected. The
first responder involved with us said that
for every preventable death, especially
when children are involved, it feels like
another rock in their pocket, weighing
them down. That’s why burn out and
suicide rates are so high among first
responders; they just can’t take all that
weight. Ultimately, one drowning can truly
impact the lives of so many people.
“Together, through water safety
education, we can make a difference. We
can keep Em’s memory alive by making
EVERY CHILD A SWIMMER!”
For more information, or to get involved,
visit https://everychildaswimmer.org/, or
follow Every Child a Swimmer on LinkedIn,
Facebook, Instagram and/or YouTube. To
speak directly to Casey, you can reach her by
email at [email protected] or
by phone at (954) 275-9035.
