SplashForward

10/14/2026

Get to know our 💦SPLASHForward Youth Ambassador Committee ✨Leads for 2026-27! They are looking forward to welcoming new and returning members as we set our goals for the school year ahead.

We’re all about making a splash! 🌊💦Together, we’re bringing more people to the pool, spreading our love of swimming, and helping our community stay safe around water. With SPLASHForward, you can turn your passion for swimming into action, make a real difference, and build your leadership and advocacy skills along the way!

🏊What’s your favorite pool game?
🏊‍♀️Indoor or outdoor pool?
🤽Deep end or shallow end?
🛟Floaties or pool noodles?
😎Goggles or sunglasses?

Join us tomorrow after school at our kick-off meeting!
📆Weds, Oct 14, 4pm – 5pm
📍Bellevue City Hall

🙏Sophie for Content Visuals & Production 💙💦

10/04/2026

Looking for a way to share your passion💙 for all things aquatics?🏹🪂🏄🏊‍♀️🏌️‍🤽🏾‍🏊🤽🤽🏾‍♂️🤽‍♀️💦 Come to our Youth Ambassador Committee’s fall kick-off meeting on Weds, Oct 14th. You’ll make new friends and learn about opportunities to use your voice and grow your skills in support of 💦SPLASHForward and our mission. We’re embarking on an incredible year ahead as the new Bellevue Aquatic Center begins its design phase and we bring capital partners and stakeholders to the process.

Come learn about our goals and opportunities for this school year! We are youth-led by our three co-chairs, Sophie, Mira, and Hennessey.

💦Community Outreach
💦Social Media & Marketing
💦Legislative Outreach
💦Water Safety Programs

📆Weds, Oct 14th @ 4pm
📍Bellevue City Hall

😊Bring a friend! We’ve got over 25 students from local high schools to meet and work with.

09/26/2026

🎉 A Major Milestone for the New Bellevue Aquatic Center!🏊‍♀️💙💦

On Sept 17, the City of Bellevue released the 📄RFQ (Request for Qualifications) for the lead contractor and architect to develop Bellevue Airfield Park. Once selected, the team will work with the City and SPLASHForward to select the aquatic center lead architect and team to develop the new Bellevue Aquatic Center.💦

The RFQ has been long-awaited...since March this year, and we’re thrilled to see the project moving forward! Qualified teams have until 🚨October 15 to apply, with team selection expected by mid-December. The design phase is anticipated to begin in 📆early 2027.

Once the project team is in place, the project will advance in two phases:
🌳 Phase 1: Park development and preliminary aquatic center design
🏊 Phase 2: Complete aquatic center design and construction

SPLASHForward continues to support the City and prepare for the design phase. This includes concept design refinements that support stakeholder aquatic programming and needs, capital partnership development, and capital campaign pre-planning.

We've been preparing for this moment for quite some time.

Let’s Go! 💦

08/25/2026

Had a fabulous time building community and supporting local Black businesses at the inaugural 🌟Golden Hour Unboxed at the Bellevue Botanical Gardens🌳.

Many golden moments unfolded. We can’t wait to be there next year and support this event as it grows.

Hats off to our Board member Katoya Palmer of ToyBox Consulting for launching her vision for this event and to Charmaine Madden for being on point to make it happen. Your organization, messages, and attention to detail were noticed.

Next year we want to see more representation from the City of Bellevue, the Chamber, and all our local business community. We need to do more than fund events like this. It is about building relationships and creating pathways.
City of Bellevue
Bellevue Chamber Of Commerce

08/20/2026

THIS SUNDAY, 💦SPLASHForward is supporting and tabling at ✨Golden Hour Unboxed — a free celebration 🎉 of Black entrepreneurship at 🌳Bellevue Botanical Garden, Sunday, August 23. Doors open at 5:30pm - golden hour to twilight. This event is put on by our amazing Board member Katoya Palmer's ToyBox Consulting and Management and funded through a City of Bellevue Cross Cultural Center Without Walls grant.

It's free, it's all ages, and it ends in a twilight social. Come early and stroll the gardens, then shop, hear the storytelling and entrepreneur pitches, say hi, and stay for the sunset.

👉RSVP FREE at goldenhourunboxed.com.

08/15/2026

Join our SPLASHForward💙💦 Swim Across America - Seattle 🏊🏊‍♂️🇺🇸 Team before the registration fee increases on Monday! We’re swimming once again to join our local community in raising funds to help fight cancer. All funds go to Fred Hutch Cancer Center to fund early stage cancer research and immunotherapy clinical trials.

💦Sat Sept 12th
💦Sunset Beach at Lake Sammamish State Park
💦Swim Distances - .5mi, 1mi, 2mi or swim virtually (any option works!)

👉Sign up on our SPLASHForward Team Page - https://bit.ly/SAATeamSPLASHFORWARD

👉Learn more about the event - https://bit.ly/SAASeattle

08/01/2026

We so admire and appreciate💙💦 all lifeguards🛟🏊‍♀️🏊‍♂️ from our newest to our most seasoned and even those who have retired! We believe lifeguards are the linchpin to enabling our aquatic facilities to provide essential aquatic programs, lifesaving skills, and safe places to recreate together. 🙏Thank you to all lifeguards for choosing to help keep others safe, work as a team, and continue to hone your skills so that we can enjoy our lifeguarded pools, beaches, lakes, and waterfronts. We are especially proud of all of the students we have supported through our program and their passion and commitment to water safety.

👉Next time you are at the water, 🙏thank the lifeguards on duty and let them know how much you appreciate their vigilance in keeping you and others safe around water, preventing drowning and mishaps while you enjoy the water. 💙💦

Big milestone alert🚨! As of last weekend, we have supported 501 students across 45 schools in Bellevue, the Greater Eastside, Seattle, and King County to receive their lifeguard certification through our HS Lifeguard Training Program since we started it in 2021! If you counted the students on our waitlist, attempted portions of the lifeguard class, attended our workshops, or attended our skill development classes who are not yet certified or 15yrs old, then we have supported over 620 students.

See the comments for how you can help us reach our goals and continue providing lifeguards to our local waters at your pools, beaches, and lakes.

07/31/2026

You may have seen this heroic lifesaving rescue on your social feeds. This 16yr old lifeguard🛟🏊‍♂️ and his team who guard CA coast beaches, are amazing first responders and lifesavers.💙💦 They are doing what they are trained to do. As this 16yr old said...what they do every day.

Hopefully, the attention that this lifesaving moment gets will help lifeguards be recognized as first responders. We also hope it helps our local businesses, individuals, and foundations invest as sponsors in our HS Lifeguard Training Program. Our program, for the first time in six years, is currently on hold due to maxing out our 2026 available sponsor funding. We are actively applying to grants and soliciting funders so that we can continue to provide FREE training, skill development, mentorship, and job resources to high school students in our region.

If you know of someone or an organization that might be interested in becoming a sponsor, please reach out - [email protected]

NBC News

Ryder Williams, the 16-year-old lifeguard credited with saving a boy off California’s Santa Cruz coast is speaking out for the first time. Williams says he was at the waterline when he saw a child lose his footing. The father of the boy rescued tells NBC News he is eternally grateful to Williams. ...

07/25/2026

Today is 🛟National Drowning Prevention Day🏊‍♀️🏊‍♂️! It takes all of us to UNITE to turn the tide.💙💦

Drowning is the…
💦4th leading cause of death for children aged 1 to 4
💦3rd leading cause of death for children aged 5 – 14

💦24% of all drowning deaths are children under the age of 5
💦Drowning claims more than 300,000 lives every year
💦Locally, this summer we have witnessed drowning deaths in our lakes and rivers of youth, teens, and young adults.

🛟Drowning is preventable.

👉We are working in partnership with our community to turn the tide by expanding access to aquatics.
🙏Please support our efforts so that together we can UNITE to turn the tide!💙💦

World Health Organization (WHO)
Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus