Legacy of 2-year-old Hardin County boy lives on through family's drowning prevention efforts

ELIZABETHTOWN, Ky. (WDRB) -- After the drowning death of their 2-year-old son, a Hardin County family is making it a mission to try to prevent others from going through the same tragedy.

Ashley and Dave Allen said their son, Vinny, died after a drowning accident while they were on vacation in Florida. Ashley Allen said it was Spring Break, and several family members were together. She said they had spent the day swimming at a pool.

"It was the end of the day," she said. "We were getting ready to go, we thought, for the ride home. We had about an hour drive back to our vacation rental and we thought 'Let's put the boys in their pajamas, because, by the time we get home, they'll want to go to bed.'"

Ashley Allen said in that short time, Vinny found his way back outside to the pool.

"Dave jumped in the pool, grabbed him (and) pulled him out, she said. "My mom did CPR on him."

She said they called 911, and Vinny ended up getting transferred to a hospital in Orlando. But, ultimately, he didn't survive. He became an organ donor, and his legacy of helping others didn't end there. His family is now devoted to educating others about drowning prevention.

"He was very special, and we knew he was special even before he left us," said Michele Mattix, Vinny's grandmother. "His accident could've been so preventable, and I think, once we learned that, we were infuriated that we didn't know. And that really pushed us to make sure that the world knows about this."

The Allens created a nonprofit called Swim For Vinny, providing scholarships for survival swim lessons and sharing Vinny's story. Mattix left her job of 34 years as a labor and delivery nurse to become an instructor for Infant Swimming Resource, or ISR. She now teaches lessons through Vinny's ISR of Elizabethtown.

"(ISR) is an organization that advocates for instructors to teach kids how to aquatically problem solve in case they were to develop an emergency in the water," Mattix said.

A young student goes through lessons with ISR instructor, Michele Mattix. Mattix lost her grandson, Vinny, in a drowning accident in 2022. (WDRB image)

Not long after Vinny's death in 2022, Mattix said she spent eight weeks in South Carolina for training.

"We have to re-certify every year," she said. "We have to send in a full-length video of a student every year in order to be re-certified. So, it's not just a one-and-done thing."

At the pool where Mattix does her instruction, there are flyers and pictures of Vinny. Students receive one-on-one lessons with Mattix for several weeks. She said ages range from 6 months to 6 years old.

Ashely Allen said it would've been easier to never go around water again after losing her son. But she wanted to honor his legacy and "make sure other parents know what we didn't know."

"I don't know that I can say we'll ever enjoy the water, but we can at least not live in fear of the water," she said. "And we wanted our other children to learn how to save their lives should they come in contact with the water."

According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, drowning can happen to anyone any time there is access to water. It says drowning can happen in seconds and is often silent. Drowning is the No. 1 cause of death for children 1 to 4 years old in the United States, the CDC says. In total, more than 4,000 people die from drowning annually in the U.S.

"It's impossible to have our eyes on our kids 24/7," Ashley Allen said. "In those small moments — 30 seconds, 60 seconds where they can find the water — it shouldn't have to end detrimentally."

At least half a dozen students showed up for lessons with Mattix the morning of Wednesday, June 5. Some had been there before and were getting refresher courses ahead of the summer pool and vacation season.

"It's been really good to see them grow, and the refresher's been really good," said Chase Greenwell, a parent with two young children participating in the program. "My parents built a pool a couple years ago, so, for us in the summertime, it was a good kind of refresh to get things going again. We really love the program, what it teaches."

Greenwell said it also makes him worry a little bit less.

"If, in the case that something were to happen they were to accidently fall in when we weren't there or even if you were there, just a split second can make a huge difference with them being able to save their lives and ... you sleep a little better at night," he said.

Another parent with children in the program, Miranda Lawless, said she believes her daughters are learning valuable skills.

"Starting Lucy at 6 months old was scary because she was so little, and you don't think at 6 months old they're going to learn something so important and so big," Lawless said. "But she did."

The CDC says drowning prevention includes things like learning basic swimming and water safety skills, building fences to fully enclose pools, having close supervision, wearing a life jacket, learning CPR and more.

The American Academy of Pediatrics recommends swim lessons for many children starting at age 1.

For information from the CDC, click here.

For a direct link to Swim For Vinny, click here.

Legacy of 2-year-old Hardin County boy lives on through family's drowning prevention efforts