FCA STATEMENT ON PELLA DROWNINGS

All of FCA today is grieving at the loss of these two wonderful young men last night (July 14). Both of the juveniles, ages 14 and 15, were from the Kansas City area and were attending the annual FCA summer Multi-Sport camp being held this week at Central College in Pella, Iowa. At the time of this tragedy, they were offsite with all the other young male FCA campers for an evening at a local Pella pool. It is a horrible and unimaginable tragedy that these young men would drown in a Pella city-owned facility that had at least 10 lifeguards and 20 FCA Huddle leaders, almost all of whom are college athletes, who were observing and many other young people in attendance.

They were discovered at the bottom of the pool of the Pella Aquatic Center at approximately 9:50 pm CDST on Wednesday (July 14). A 911 call was received at the Pella Police Department at 9:50 and CPR was administered to the juveniles when emergency personnel arrived on the scene. Both of the juveniles were declared dead on arrival at the local Pella hospital. Autopsies are being scheduled and the police investigation is ongoing.

The names of the young men have not been released, pending notification of their families. Trained counselors are now working closely with those young men and women who remain at the Pella camp for the duration of the planned week’s activities.

The Pella Aquatic Center had been leased by the Central Western Iowa Des Moines Chapter of the Fellowship of Christian Athletes for this evening event. The Fellowship of Christian Athletes is headquartered in Kansas City. The organization’s National Support Center is located across from the Truman Sports Complex.
The Pella camp is one of more than 325 being held across the nation and in several other countries by FCA this summer. More than 50,000 student athletes and coaches are expected to attend these camps. In the FCA camps like the one at Pella, boys and girls can receive instruction from high school and college coaches in different sports such as basketball, wrestling, football, tennis, soccer and track.

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