Florence County mom, Mandy Kepner, left, keeps her kids, Piper Maruszczak and Brantley Gregg, safe by using the personal floatation devices at a water safety kiosk at the Twin Falls boat landing as they get ready to enjoy some time at the lake, learning to kayak.

Florence, Wis. — The Florence County community is committed to preventing child injury by supporting and initiating measures that will save lives. Due to the number of natural bodies of water in the area, drowning has the potential to occur at an increased rate.

According to The World Health Organization, strategies to address drownings include swimming lessons, signage, and availability of personal flotation devices.

Therefore, the health department, along with many community partners, has erected several water safety stations that consist of educational information and are supplied with personal flotation devices for public use.

Please call the Florence County Health Department 715-528-4837 with any questions and/or concerns about the safety kiosk program.

Kiosks can be found at Badwater ski area, Twin Falls boat landing, Keyes Lake beach, Fischer Lake beach, and West Bass beach.

According to the American Academy of Pediatrics 2019, drowning is the leading cause of injury death in U.S. children 1 to 4 years of age and the third leading cause of unintentional injury death among U.S. children and adolescents 5 to 19 years of age. Age, sex, and race and/or ethnicity also contribute to the rate of drowning death. However, toddlers and male adolescents are at highest risk and black children 5 to 14 years of age are three times more likely than white children to drown, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

For more information, go to the Florence County Health Department webpage at http://www.florencecountywi.com/. The Florence County Health Department is located on the first floor of the courthouse.