AquaBliss Pools Gives Back by Supporting Water Safety and Drowning Prevention Efforts

A mother with a tragic story and a PSN Top 50 Service provider work together to curb drowning deaths in Florida.

By Nate Trayor

By fate or coincidence, Cassie McGovern, who had lost her 19-month-old daughter in a backyard pool drowning, was serving wings and drinks to members of a local IPSSA chapter, which met at the restaurant for its monthly meetings. She told them her story.

At the time, she had quite a juggle: In addition to her job as a waitress, she was getting her drowning-prevention organization, the McGovern Foundation, off the ground. “I would go out and speak and share my story,” McGovern recalls. “Being a very, very small nonprofit, I needed all the help I could get.”

The pool pros supplied more than a sympathetic ear. They gave the waitress a trunk-full of water-safety collateral that she could disseminate on her speaking circuit.

Ken Scott, president and owner of AquaBliss Pools in Deerfield Beach, Fla., was so moved by McGovern’s story that he committed to donating a dollar per pool account to her drowning-prevention efforts. Among his services, he repairs pool vacuum bags, and donates all proceeds from that work to the McGovern Foundation. His contributions have funded swimming lessons for 50 disadvantaged youths, as well as certifications for 10 lifeguards.

“As pool guys, our livelihood depends on swimming pools,” says Scott, whose company appears in PSN’s Top 50 Pool Service ranking. “We should be trying to do whatever we can to keep those pools safe.”