As designated by the state Legislature last year on May 15, Water Safety Awareness Day (Senate Bill 2841) touches many parts of the community. The common thread is “to shape the future of water safety and to work to reduce the incidence of drowning and aquatic injuries” statewide, per the Hawaiʻi Water Safety Coalition.
Established in 2023, HWSC is made up of bereaved family advocates, as well as members of the Hawaiian Lifeguard Association and the Outrigger Duke Kahanamoku Foundation.
Allison Schaefers Dubovsky, a longtime journalist for the Honolulu Star-Advertiser, is a bereaved parent volunteer for HWSC, and this year, authored and edited the 2025 Hawai’i Water Safety Plan. Her daughter Charlotte “Sharkey” Schaefers died in 2004 at 5 years old, saving her drowning friend in an unkept detention pond in Pearl City.
In this year’s legislative session, Dubovsky wrote and pushed for SB1221, which requires Hawaiʻi counties to establish safety requirements for retention and detention ponds. “They also will have to do a survey of existing retention and detention ponds and make a recommendation to next year's Legislature on how to address them,” Dubovsky said in an April 25 email.
The measure is now enrolled to Gov. Josh Green, and if passed, will become Sharkey's Law beginning January 2027.
Dubovsky said, “WE DID IT! Thanks for all your support and persistent testimony, as well as prayers and positive affirmations. Sharkey has to be dancing in the sky.”
“Sharkey's Law will save lives in Hawai‘i, where drowning is the leading cause of death for children ages 1-15. … Sharkey would be alive today if the developers who built a rainwater detention pond in our community had put up signage and fencing and kept the drainpipe clear. The drainpipe was 89% clogged and overnight turned rolling hills in our community into a lake.”
On Friday, government and community leaders came together at the 2025 Hawai’i Water Safety Conference in Waikīkī. Dubovsky told Aloha State Daily there that part of the agenda for the day would be to identify at least three focus areas for the next legislative session. "It's a growing movement," she said.
“We were proud to sign Senate Bill 2841, officially establishing Water Safety Awareness Day, to raise awareness, prevention and preparedness. It is very serious, that's probably 90% of the battle in my mind,” Green said at the conference.
He shared both personal and professional experiences, as a former Emergency Room doctor.
Other speakers were Senate President Ron Kouchi and managing director for the City and County of Honolulu, Mike Formby, on behalf of Honolulu Mayor Rick Blangiardi.
“I am aware enough to know that drownings [treated] in the ER are not the only important stat,” Kouchi said in the opening remarks. “It’s the unreported statistic of people who don’t get into trouble because you have educated and helped the, usually to prevent them from doing something that’s foolish. That is a statistic we cannot count.”
Addressing the crowd more than 60 people Friday morning, he added, “I appreciate everything that you do. And I appreciate in this room, all of the partners that you have because we have not be able to do it alone.”
Friday afternoon, the Hawaiian Lifeguard Association led by Kalani Vierra hosted a Beach Guardian Workshop, to ensure “that community members and visitors have the skills to act quickly in an emergency before first responders arrive,” HWSC said.
Kelsey Kukaua Medeiros can be reached at kelsey@alohastatedaily.com.
