Resident not just visitors account for nearly half of ocean drownings in Hawaiʻi, about 49 percent, challenging one of the most common assumptions about who is at risk. Even more sobering: drowning remains the leading cause of death for Hawaiʻi’s children ages 1 to 15.

Allison Schaefers, a journalist with the Honolulu Star-Advertiser and a key member of the Hawaiʻi Water Safety Coalition, is helping change that reality.

Her work sits at the intersection of public awareness, policy, and prevention treating drowning not as an accident, but as a preventable public health issue. But what makes her voice especially powerful is that it is grounded in lived experience.

At the heart of her story is the loss of her daughter in a 2004 drowning.

From that unimaginable tragedy came purpose fueling advocacy that contributed to Sharkey’s Law, which will require fencing, signage, and ring buoys at detention ponds beginning in 2027.

Schaefers has also played a central role in advancing the 2025 Hawaiʻi Water Safety Plan, a coordinated effort to reduce drowning statewide. The plan is designed to be accessible written at a sixth grade reading level and built for real-world use by families, schools, and community leaders.

The data behind the plan is clear: Hawaiʻi continues to face high drowning rates, with Native Hawaiian and Pacific Islander communities disproportionately impacted. At the same time, research shows that water skill retention among young children especially by second grade is alarmingly low.

In response, the coalition is moving forward on multiple fronts: county-wide pond safety surveys, community hotspot stewardship, pilot swim programs through the Department of Education, and a new Department of Health campaign supported by the CDC Foundation.

Looking ahead, working groups are forming, and a statewide coalition conference on May 14 will help align efforts across agencies and communities.

The conversation also highlighted proven strategies from water competency and loaner life jacket programs to reservoir safety inspections and even tourism-based geofencing while acknowledging critical gaps, including the need for better data on non-fatal drownings.

The goal is clear: scale what works, share tools and training, and build a coordinated system of prevention across Hawaiʻi.

That work is already gaining recognition. The 2025 Hawaiʻi Water Safety Plan has been presented at the Safe Kids Worldwide conference and received national recognition for its approach.

This is what prevention looks like when policy, community, and lived experience come together.

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