VSO Joining Project Lifesaver Following Drowning Deaths Of Children With Autism

Date Added: December 05, 2024 3:33 pm

The recent drowning deaths of two missing children with autism in Volusia County are bringing the community together in a campaign to save lives.

This week, Sheriff Mike Chitwood is announcing a multifaceted effort to prevent more drownings like those that took the lives of 4-year-old Waylon Childs in Ormond Beach and 7-year-old Charlie Newton in Deltona.

1. With funding from the Community Partnership for Children, the Volusia Sheriff’s Office is joining Project Lifesaver, a comprehensive program designed to help individuals affected with a cognitive disorder that may lead to elopement or wandering. Any child or adult enrolled in Project Lifesaver will wear a small personal transmitter around the wrist or ankle that emits an individualized tracking signal.

2. Through the VSO Autism Awareness Program, which allows families to register their address and contact information with the Sheriff’s Office, families will be offered specialized water safety training through a partnership with Halifax Health and Easterseals of Northeast Central Florida. The VSO autism awareness and decal initiative was launched in 2022 and has contact with more than 1,000 Volusia County families.

3. In addition to these initiatives, VSO is supporting Halifax Health and Easterseals in their “Project Lifeline” campaign, with the goal of raising funds to provide Volusia County families with options for kids or adults who are prone to go missing or drown. These options include Sharewear ID bracelets, AngelSense GPS devices that provide live monitoring, alerting and tracking, door and window alarms, and water safety training.

“There may not be one magic solution that works for every family,” Sheriff Chitwood said, “but if we come together and give families options, my hope is we can save lives and prevent more tragic deaths like Waylon’s and Charlie’s.”

For more information on the VSO Project Lifesaver program, contact projectlifesaver@volusiasheriff.gov.

For more information on Project Lifesaver, visit: https://projectlifesaver.org/

To sign up with the VSO Autism Awareness Program, visit: https://www.volusiasheriff.gov/autism.stml

To donate to the Project Lifeline campaign, visit: https://halifaxhealth.org/lifeline