Olympic Gold Medalist Cullen Jones has joined forces with the USA Swimming Foundation and ConocoPhillips in an effort to recude drowning statistics among minority youth. Jones will spread the message with a six-city event series, "Make a Splash with Cullen Jones," presented by ConocoPhillips, which began May 20 in Houston. Motivated by the fact that African-American children drown at a rate almost three times higher than Caucasian children in similar age groups, Jones, the first African-American male to hold a world record in swimming, is using his fame to raise awareness on the issue and ensure more kids learn to swim, especially in urban communities. As primary spokesman for the USA Swimming Foundation's Make a Splash initiative, Jones will tour the country promoting the availability of low-to-no-cost swimming lessons to give all kids access to life-saving swimming skills, regardless of their ethnic or economic background. Jones was in Houston on May 20 to kick off Make a Splash with Cullen Jones and will visit five other cities this year -- Indianapolis, Seattle, Kansas City, Denver and Los Angeles. There, Jones will meet with community leaders, parents and children to deliver a stark message the ability to swim is a life-and-death issue that requires immediate action from parents and kids. Wacth Cullen in Houston. Make a Splash, the national, child-focused water safety initiative of the USA Swimming Foundation, began in 2007. In two years, more than 37,000 kids have gone through Make a Splash swimming lessons. Make a Splash works by aligning the nation's top learn-to-swim providers in an effort to save lives. Currently, there are 68 providers giving free or low-cost water safety instruction across the country. For more information, please click here.
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