“To teach precautions that should be observed in the water and preventative measures necessary to avoid accidents”. Article 1, Section 3, ARCVLSC Bylaws

“To prevent drowning by teaching swimming and lifesaving”. Article 1, Section 4, ARCVLSC Bylaws

Florida ranks third in our nation in total number of drowning deaths. For children age 1-4, Florida leads the nation; not only in number of deaths by drowning per capita, but absolute number of drowning deaths. Simply put, more children will die from drowning in the state of Florida than any other state. The reasons are many; these victims are too young to be in school, but old enough to move around and get into danger. Most of these drownings occur in swimming pools when there is a lapse in parental or secondary supervision.  As lifeguards, we recognize two easy targets for intervention; teaching kids to swim and be comfortable in the water at an early age, and educating parents on their responsibilities to kids around the water.

We are extremely proud of the job we do on the beach. When the Volunteer Life Saving Corps was conceived in 1912, the idea of posting lifeguards was so radical that it pushed Pablo/Jacksonville Beach onto a national stage (perhaps you’ve seen the 1939 article from Life Magazine?), and rightly so. Now, oceanfront lifesaving programs have modernized and are highly effective, with less than 2% of the world deaths by drowning occurring in the oceanfront setting. That leaves us a huge target for intervention to continue saving as many lives as possible and stay at the forefront of lifesaving science. We must acknowledge a shift in the drowning demographic from guarded oceanfront to private and community pools. This does not mean that we should be any less vigilant along the shore, but rather to expand and revitalize the vision of our VLSC forefathers.

To this effect, we wanted to tell as many kids and parents as we could about how to be safe around the water and we have branded these new programs “The Beach and Beyond”. We started by attending the opening of each of Sunrise Surf Shop’s Surf Camps and providing a ocean safety briefing to the kids. Afterwards, while the children paddled out with the camp’s counselors, we addressed the parents separately and gave them literature about how to better supervise children around the water. We utilized the “Water Watcher” tag program which is sponsored by the Florida Department of Health and has water safety rules attached to a lanyard and states that the adult wearing the tag is responsible for watching the kids and can only relinquish their duties if they hand off the tag to another responsible adult. It is no different than the way we do our guard change; you don’t turn and run for the truck until your replacement is watching the water. There are many basic principles that we have learned through the years that we can apply to community teaching. We ARE the experts on drowning prevention.

Another program was to provide a forum for Kids and Parents alike to receive information on water safety that emphasizes that the whole community shares a stake in the welfare of children around the water. We started close to home, focusing on the Carver Community Center in Jacksonville Beach. Here, we found very independent children living just blocks from the beach with little or no water confidence or swimming ability. With our resources, we purchased an inflatable pool and hosted a total of three free cookouts where we gave brief safety talks to over 100 children before providing a fun, safe water experience under the supervision of several ARCVLSC members. To entice the kids and parents to come out, we had a skateboard donated by Sunrise Surf Shop and Recruit Surfman Monica Ruggerio painted the deck with a beach scene and water safety tips. We then gave it away in a drawing along with passes to Adventure Landing, Salt Life t-shirts, and lots of other goodies. The City of Jax Beach helped design and bought 500 drink coozies adorned with water safety tips and a picture of the station drawn by one of the children at the Carver Center.

Special thanks to Dan Brooks at Sunrise Surf Shop for donating food and prizes, Mitch and the Wavemasters Society for their $500 donation to the program, Steve Park Sr., and Cindy Van Zandt for their tireless advocacy and dedication. We would not be able to save these lives without their hard work.

For more information, call the Jacksonville Beach Lifeguard Station at (904) 249-9141 and ask for Lt. Matt Duffy.