Great Falls Business and Professional Association (BPA) president Ralph Lazaro said he was moved to see the spirit of giving come full circle recently, when the BPA made a $1,000 donation to the Trevor “Birdie” Davis Water Safety Foundation, which was established by Great Falls residents Brad and Amy Davis.
In June of 2006, the Davis’ two-year-old son Trevor “Birdie” Davis drowned at a “Moving From the Neighborhood” pool party held in honor of the family. Amy Davis said she had only turned her attention away for a moment to greet some friends, when she suddenly realized that her youngest son had left her side.
“I looked beside me and said ‘he was just here, he must have gone to find Brad,’ but before I could finish the thought I panicked and began to look toward the pool,” said Amy Davis. “I looked into the shallow end and saw nothing, and then I looked toward the deep end and could not believe my eyes.”
Trevor was floating in the deep end of the pool next to a pair of sunglasses. Brad and Amy Davis believe that their youngest son probably reached for the glasses, unaware of the danger posed by the deep water. Adults at the party performed CPR on “Birdie” until a helicopter arrived and flew the toddler to INOVA Fairfax Children’s hospital. He was taken off of life support three days later on June 13, 2006.
“You think your kids are safe because you have a fence around the pool, or because there are other parents around, but you cannot take your eyes off of your child for one second,” said Amy Davis.
IN RESPONSE to the tragedy, Brad and Amy Davis established the Trevor “Birdie” Davis Water Safety Foundation. Funds donated to the Foundation will be used to bring the Infant Swimming Resource (ISR) / Safe Start USA program to the Washington D.C. metropolitan area. The program, which was developed by Dr. Harvey Barnett in Orlando, Fla. in 1966, has trained more than 140,000 children under the age of 4 how to survive in the water. According to the Infant Swim Resource Web site, more than 1,700 survivals of near-drowning incidents have been witnessed as a result of the program.
When the members of the Great Falls Business and Professional Association heard about the Davis family and their foundation, they knew immediately that they wanted to make a contribution. The organization presented a $1,000 check to the couple at the Great Falls Community Library last week.
“This is a full circle contribution,” said Lazaro. “Amy has worked at the Taste of Great Falls as a volunteer to help out our cause, and now some of those funds that she helped to raise will be given back to the community. It’s amazing, and this really is the Great Falls BPA giving back to the community in a meaningful way.”
Brad and Amy Davis were both grateful for the donation.
“This means a lot to our family and our foundation,” said Amy Davis. “We suffered a major tragedy, and we hope to one day bring these swimming classes up here from Florida to help save lives. We don’t want any family to have to go through what we went through.”