Episcopal Health and Rockaways New York

Introduction

For many years, Episcopal Health Services (EHS) has been a valued Partner in Prevention with IMPACT Melanoma coordinating with the City of New York’s Department of Parks and Recreation to provide access to free sunscreen throughout the Rockaway Peninsula in Queens, NY. NYC Parks maintains 14 miles of beaches for swimming, fishing, and kayaking.

Partnering with IMPACT Melanoma

IMPACT Melanoma’s Practice Safe Skin Program includes 16 sunscreen dispensers dispersed across the beaches including maintenance services to keep them clean and refilled.

Each season, the program is launched to coincide with Don’t Fry Day, the Friday of Memorial Day weekend, as the country kicks off the unofficial start of summer.

The program’s objectives include:

• educating beachgoers, residents, and visitors about the importance of being sun safe
• providing access to free sunscreen throughout the Rockaway’s public beaches
• providing prevention education to raise awareness of the dangers of exposure to harmful UV rays.
• encouraging adopting sun safe behaviors including reapplication of sunscreen.

The IMPACT

This table gives a summary of the growth over the initial three years of Episcopal Health’s reach in growing awareness and providing access to free sunscreen throughout the Rockaways.

The program continues each season to increase awareness, educate beach goers, and promote regular use of sunscreen to be safe and save lives.