The Association of Pool & Spa Professionals announces the 2013 Dr. Neil Lowry Memorial Award has been presented to the Brevard County Environmental Health Services Department in Viera, Fla. Cynthia Leckey, environmental supervisor II, accepted the award on behalf of the department.
The $5,000 award honors and recognizes public health officials who have made outstanding contributions to advance the public’s healthy and safe use of recreational water, including pools, spas, hot tubs, natural waters and waterparks.
The award is given in the memory of Dr. Neil Lowry, a long-time member of APSP who influenced the pool and spa industry for more than 25 years as a consultant to government and private industry and a member of the APSP Recreational Water Quality Committee. The Brevard County Environmental Health Services Department is committed to lowering their state ranking of eighth out of 67 counties for drowning deaths in Florida, and plans to use the award to provide swim lesson scholarships to children up to the age of 6 years old that belong to families who would not be financially able to pay for swim lessons on their own.
"Brevard County has teamed up with the Florida Department of Health's Office of Injury Prevention and has actively participated in the WaterproofFL campaign," says Tom Metzbower, executive advisor at Taylor Technologies and subcommittee chair for the Dr. Neil Lowry Memorial Award Program. "The campaign message is to educate families on drowning prevention, and is accomplished by distributing educational materials, water watcher tags and door alarms at public events such as health fairs, 5K races, schools, daycares, hospitals, YMCAs, public parks and during swimming lessons."
Past winners of the Dr. Neil Lowry Memorial Award are Sacramento County Environmental Management Dept., 2012; Alexandria, Va., Health Dept., 2011; City of Houston, 2010; and Plano, Texas, 2009.
In addition to soliciting entries from public health and building code officials each year for the Dr. Neil Lowry Memorial Award, APSP’s Recreational Water Quality Committee develops and maintains verifiable science-based information regarding chemical products, spas and hot tubs. The committee also writes the chemical and sanitation sections for all of the ANSI/APSP standards and distributes the RWQ newsletter to public health officials. For more information about the Dr. Neil Lowry Memorial Award, visit APSP.org.
