West Marine and BoatUS Foundation for Boating Safety and Clean Water recently combined efforts in order to donate 2,500 type-III lifejackets to various charitable outlets. Sources for the vests include campus, at-risk youth programs, and community swimming and sailing programs. The National Safe Boating Council – along with state boating agencies in Tennessee, Kentucky, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Washington and Florida – were all given jackets as well.
Chuck Hawley, VP of Product Information for West Marine, stated, "As part of our BlueFuture initiative, we encourage kids to get out on the water and enjoy boating… We hope this donation will enable more youth to explore the wonders of our country's beautiful lakes, oceans and rivers safely."
Lynne O'Hearn of the Boat US Foundation spoke to the benefit of having comfortable life vests as it relates to practiced safety measures in younger mariners; "We looked at the wide variety of summer camp and sailing programs that get youth on the water, and saw a real need… We greatly appreciate West Marine's effort and I'm sure the kids will appreciate wearing these comfortable jackets instead of the standard orange horse-collar-type jacket that most camps offer. If kid's learn early that life jackets can be comfortable, they will embrace wearing them their entire lives."
For more information in the particular camps involved, visit this link.
