River Road Park District Granted 50 Life Jackets from AOAP

River Road Park District Aquatic Department is very grateful for the generous grant of 50 new Type II life jackets from AOAP in 2022. We were able to replace over 25 old and out of date PFD’s and Puddle Jumpers with new life jackets.  Having the new PFD’s this summer allowed us to have all our day camps utilize Rec Swims by allowing otherwise smaller children or non-swimmers the ability to participate.

It has also allowed our swim lesson program far more flexibility by having more sizes and a larger number of jackets for instructors to use during their classes.  Our instructors no longer must ask each other “who is doing PFD’s today?”, we have plenty of jackets for any number of classes being taught at the same time.

This summer we will be implementing a Parent/Child Water Safety Day at the beginning of the season to teach parents the proper way to size a Lifejacket, present information on how to properly use the lifejackets and practice floating with the lifejackets on.  Another program we hope to implement this summer is an adaptive aquatics swim lesson program and having new lifejackets is going to enable us to teach another demographic group about water safety.  Having these new PFD’s is granted us more avenues for programs we only dreamed of offering.  I am personally thrilled in the ability to offer these programs.  It was a very pleasant surprise seeing our name on the jackets and being able to promote our facility in such a professional-looking way.

Renee Duncan, Aquatic Director, River Road Park and Recreation District