Women-Owned Award
Karen Lamoreaux established Safety Before Skill, a year-round swim school, with a passion to make a positive difference through her work. Safety Before Skill offers numerous swim lessons for people of all ages starting with infants and toddlers. Since 2009, Safety Before Skill has directly served more than 12,000 families in Arkansas with an average of 11,5000 swim lessons per year.
Although Lamoureaux did not have business experience, she formed relationships with others and reached out to her community to build her successful business. Lamoreaux said, “I am good at relationships, and when we put relationships first, everything else comes together.”
Lamoreaux promotes Safety Before Skill by “building relationships, offering complimentary water safety clinics and presentations in our community, segments on TV and by participating in charitable events.” The company provides more than 40 jobs annually and has given more than $50,000 in charitable service and goods to the community.
Safety Before Skill is a certified Swim Angelfish swim school, which means its coaches are trained for swimmers who have special needs and Autism. The swim school also offers The Arkansas Water Babies RX, a four-week, parent-and-me program for children ages 4 months to 3 years.
“Using this program, Safety Before Skill engages local physicians and partners with Arkansas Children’s Hospital to decrease pediatric drowning rates in our state,” Lamoreaux said, “by offering prescriptions for infant and toddler swim lessons and life jackets.”
Safety Before Skill is Lamoreaux’s passion. “Every hour that I put into my work now, translates into saving lives and making our state safer for our children.”