Meet Liz Huber

We’re excited to introduce you to the always interesting and insightful Liz Huber. We hope you’ll enjoy our conversation with Liz below.

Liz, thanks for taking the time to share your thoughts with us today. We’re excited to dive into your story and your work, but first let’s start with a broader topic that might be stopping many of our readers from pursuing their dreams – haters, nay-sayers, etc. How have you managed to persist despite haters and nay-sayers that inevitably follow folks who are doing something unique, special or off the beaten path?

When I think of all of the barriers I have faced in my endeavors to increase access to self-rescue swimming lessons for children ages 1-6, I sometimes wonder how and why I keep going. While I know that drowning is the leading cause of death for kids 1-4, remains a large issue throughout childhood and that self-rescue swimming lessons save lives, I did not anticipate so much pushback. Some of this pushback came in the form of lack of pool space (so many pools said our program would be in competition with their program), financial support (business advisors said we’d never be able to reach enough children with 1:1 lessons to attract donors and/or make a real living), and concerns for the wellbeing of children (many people speculated that our program was traumatic). It would have been SO easy to quit.

What has most helped me to overcome these hurdles is remembering our “why”, which is to save lives. Raising awareness for and increasing access to self-rescue swim lessons is how we ensure more kids are safeguarded with skills and more families are empowered with education. While I did not personally suffer the loss of a child, I now know many dear friends that I have met through this industry that have lost children. When I think of Willow and Teddy Hughes swimming and floating on family vacations, using skills that would have saved their older brother Levi’s life, I remember that why. When our team works with Maggie and Ben Trent, teaching them how to swim, float, and self-rescue, knowing that they’d lost their sister Anna who did not have this opportunity, I remember that why.

I also surround myself with amazing people. Relationships are everything in our business, which is a people business. Thinking of the work ethic, drive and passion of the dedicated and talented instructors who reach hundreds of children with self-rescue skills annually inspires me.

While I love to talk about the magic of self-rescue swim lessons, children learning to roll-back, safely float and breath at the surface of the water, an environment that could take their lives in seconds in absence of this skill, I normally let the parents do the talking. We focus on reaching the next child with high quality and effective lessons before they reach the water alone and unskilled. What happens next is that the parents share their photos, testimonials, and sometimes even real-life survival stories of children getting to the water and using the skills we taught them to find air, float, and either swim to the edge and climb out, or wait for help to arrive.

Finally, not to be cliche, but deep breaths, long walks, playing with my kids and remembering that tomorrow is a new day are all useful tools to rely on.

Even though some swim schools view us as competition and many pools will not share pool space with our instructors, we continue to touch little lives, change hearts, and educate and even partner with as many families and open minded individuals as possible. At this moment, there is a little one rolling back to their float and breathing safely at the surface of CAST’s pool. This will always give me goosebumps. Our why is rock-solid.

Let’s take a small detour – maybe you can share a bit about yourself before we dive back into some of the other questions we had for you?

My name is Liz Huber and I first found out about self-rescue lessons from a kind stranger in Naples, Florida. Soon enough, I enrolled my then 10 month and 2 year old daughters into lessons near our hometown in the Chicago-area. Not only did my babies learn to swim, float, and self-rescue, but they could do this fully clothed (so many people do not know that drowning is the leading cause of death for kids 1-4 or that most drownings happen during non-swim time, making self-rescue skills a strong line of defense against tragedy).

As a former teacher with a background in business, I decided to leave the classroom and put on a wetsuit. I became a certified self-rescue instructor in 2017. The CAST Water Safety Foundation (a 501c3 non-profit) was founded by our family in 2018. Our mission is to prevent childhood drowning by creating safer swimmers sooner. Not only do we support new instructors through their training and business building efforts, we also have our own small pool facility where we reach hundreds of children with self-rescue skills annually. Together with a growing number of nation-wide instructor partners, we have given over 800 scholarships to children of families with income based needs, children with special needs or physical disabilities and children of teachers, nurses, first responders and the military.

What is most exciting about what we do is empowering children and their families with swim skills, a sport that can use well into old age and that could also potentially also save their life!

Currently, in partnership with the University of Alabama at Birmingham’s Youth Safety Lab, CAST is in the middle of facilitating the first ever research study on the water competency capabilities of children ages 1-2. We believe that the results of this study will formally prove the effectiveness of self-rescue swimming lessons and that this will allow the pediatric community to recommend self-rescue as an effective layer of protection against drowning. Stay tuned for more developments here!

There is so much advice out there about all the different skills and qualities folks need to develop in order to succeed in today’s highly competitive environment and often it can feel overwhelming. So, if we had to break it down to just the three that matter most, which three skills or qualities would you focus on?

Number one is passion. If you are passionate about what you are doing, nothing will truly stand in your way.
Number two is being a giver. As self-rescue instructors and water safety advocates, we have so much to give. It has always served us well to give information and education, deliver skills, and let families know that they can save a life by sharing what they’d learned. Even for families that do not giveback/share, we are please to know that we have given that child a chance or given family potentially life saving information.
Number three is strong and honest communication. This can mean so many different things but we communicate clearly and often. We make sure families know what their kids can and cannot do. We celebrate wins and we also have difficult conversations. We do not hide from the grief of others. We talk about hard things and face issues head on. We are constantly in touch with our supporters (thank you notes, photos, updates, opportunities to engage).

The advice I’d give folks early in their journey is to trust your gut, be honest, under promise and over deliver, always have something to give, accept help and thank your helpers/supporters/friends every step of the way. Also, do not be afraid to surround your-self with people who are smarter than you and who have different strengths and abilities. Nobody goes far alone!

How can folks who want to work with you connect?

Yes! We are looking to collaborate with anyone that has the courage and kindness to talk about drowning stats and realities plus the solutions to these issues.

Anyone that knows people with young children, which is everyone, can save a life by having the courage to share CAST’s work. Yes, these can be aquatics professionals, but even more importantly, we want to break the echo chamber by partnering with pediatricians, schools, families, communities etc.

A few free and easy bits of wisdom (we call them Ripple Effect Tips) that are free, can be implemented immediately, and can save a life:

1. If a child is missing, check the water first.
2. Always be in the water with your non-swimmer or developing swimmer (so they do not think they can get in without you).
3. Understand that life jackets are for open natural water, boats and piers. They can also save a life in the event of a fall into a swimming pool. These devices (or any wearable flotation) should never be used for playtime at the pool. They are linked to false security and allow children to believe they can swim when they cannot. Too many children that enjoyed playtime in floaties at the pool later went on to go to the water alone and drown. See #2!
4. Consider sprinkler play if you are not able to get into the pool with your child.
5. Wear bright colors.
6. Clean up all toys from in and around the pool as these can be a lure to bring children back to the water.

We have had restaurants share our water safety coloring sheets, air bnb hosts put our water safety gift bags at every home with a pool for each check in, bars share coasters and koozies with water safety tips, plenty of social media support, schools and pediatrician offices hand out fliers and brochures, and best of all we have had people welcome us into their homes to present our stories and successes to a small group of their friends and neighbors. Some day we’d love to see a hotel chain take on water safety as an area of focus and we are prepared to help with this. The sky is the limit here, we just need people with the courage and kindness to talk about this and save a life!

Thank you Bold Journey. We are honored to be here.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://castwatersafety.org
• Instagram: castinghope_
• Facebook: CAST Water Safety Foundation
• Linkedin: Liz Huber
• Twitter: none
• Youtube: Non
• Yelp: Non
• Soundcloud: None
• Other: @cast_pool_HQ highlights our local lessons and partnerships. @castinghope_ is our nationwide water safety education account.

Image Credits

N/A