Harris Rosen’s Healthy Lifestyle And His Commitment To Water Safety

Harris Rosen, President & COO of Rosen Hotels & Resorts, leads by example in more ways than one. He’s the picture of health, regularly swimming one and a fourth miles (or 45 laps) and placing among the best in the nation in his age range for his workouts on the rowing machine. Aquatics is one of his passions; he helped save the facility that is now the Rosen Aquatic & Fitness Center from demolition not once, but twice, and is dedicated to saving lives through water safety training and swimming lessons.

Mike Miller, the executive director of the RAFC, is grateful Rosen saved the facility. Each day, Miller loves to walk around to witness all the lives it touches. One pool holds a special place in his day—the training pool. Here, the RAFC pays it forward by helping to save thousands of lives through water safety training and swimming lessons.

Florida is dotted by 30,000 lakes and has the most home pools of any state. When the Florida Department of Health said accidental child deaths by drowning hit a record high in 2021, something had to be done. Coupled with a Red Cross study proving a child’s chance of surviving in water increases to 88 percent with swim lessons, the uptick in drownings inspired facilities, like the RAFC, to provide classes. Only the RAFC has offered youth, teen and adult classes to Orange, Osceola and Seminole county residents for years.

The first year RAFC hosted its Learn to Swim program, more than 2,000 children learned life-saving water techniques. Now, interested students sign up on a waitlist, as demand has grown since Florida passed the “Every Child a Swimmer” law in 2022. The law requires schools to provide information on swimming classes and techniques to students who cannot swim.

Expansion is in the works. RAFC will hire more instructors, thanks to Rosen’s continued support. Plus, in 2023, the Meisenheimer Family Foundation and the Pool & Hot Tub Alliance awarded the RAFC with the Step into Swim grant, with support from three-time Olympic gold medalist swimmer Rowdy Gaines. The goal is to eventually enroll between 2,500 to 3,000 children.

Water safety goes far beyond children, and the RAFC is happy to share its facilities with others. The Navy and Army train and test here. Lifeguards from some of the area’s largest water parks train here, as do those from nearby hotels. Universal’s Volcano Bay alone trained more than 1,000 lifeguards in a six- to seven-month period. Airlines and cruise ships host water safety training for their staff in these pools as well. And in winter, the Orange County Fire Department (OCFD) simulates blackout dives for its water rescue operations team to prepare for summer training and real incidents in the area’s murky lakes. It responds to two to three calls a month requiring water rescue.