Student's death prompts teacher to create swim training non-profit
HOUSTON - One mother is making it her lifelong mission to keep her son’s memory alive and prevent other kids and parents from having to go through what the Brown family has and continues to endure.
Judah was 3-years-old enjoying the water.
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"We were at an apartment pool, swimming with friends and my son had his puddle jumper on, and he was out swimming with his siblings and friends, and he got cold and wanted to come out," said Christi Brown, Judah’s mother. "I could put the towel around him with the puddle jumper, so I took it off of him, and put his towel around him and sat him next to me."
This happened in September 2016. Brown explains what any parent might have done.
"When he was sitting next to me, I was checking on my other children if they were ok. They were in the deep end of the pool."
The unthinkable happened in just seconds.
"I looked down a Judah was gone. I hadn’t heard him leave. I had not seen him leave me. We panicked and looked around the pool. We found him at the shallow end of the pool at the steps. He was face down in the water," she said. "Judah had been in swimming lessons, but it was mommy and me lessons. Those teach more about getting used to the water. Getting more comfortable in the water, but no skills to survive in the water."
Judah’s memory stays alive through her mission created by Judah’s Pre K teacher, Annette Courtney, called The Judah Brown Project- a nonprofit offers training for survival swim among many other things.
"We are able to talk about Judah all the time. She shares tons of stories, and I will often share stories from when he was in my classroom, and how I remember him too. It is such a blessing to continue to talk about him and his life," said Courtney.
To learn more about the nonprofit organization, click here.