Stressing Pool Safety

Memorial Day is the traditional start of the summer vacation season, so it's a good time to remind parents of the critical importance of extra diligence when kids are in or have access to pools.

According to the Stew Leonard's grocery stores lost a young son to a drowning accident 16 years ago.

Twenty-one-month old Stew III drowned trying to retrieve a balloon that had drifted into the family pool. He was only out of sight for a moment.

Leonard and his wife, Kim, started the Stew Leonard III Water Safety Foundation. Its mission: "to save lives through water safety education and awareness for both children and adults," its Web site says.

The Foundation provides scholarships for swimming lessons and safety equipment through local YMCAs and Swim America, a nationally certified learn to swim program offered by the American Swimming Coaches Association, and has helped more than 10,000 children learn to swim since 1990, the site adds.

The Leonards just released their second children's book, "Swimming Lessons with Stewie the Duck" addressing, as the foundation Web site puts it, "the skills and fears children face when they first start taking swimming lessons."

The Leonards' first children's book, "Stewie the Duck Learns to Swim" is, the Web site says, designed to be "a child's first guide to water safety, conveying the message of how to be safe near the water through the story of Stewie, a duck who wants to swim with the 'big ducks,' but is prevented from going in the water by his older sister until he learns the water safety rules."

Stew Leonard III joins The Early Show Monday from his home in Westport, Conn. to go over some critical pool safety rules.

Pool Safety Guidelines from the American Red Cross