Woodlawn Regional Park Boundary Dam beach site opened its new life jacket loaner station in association with the Lifesaving Society on Aug. 11.
The station is provided free of charge to anyone who visits the park and lifejackets have been supplied in infant, child, youth and adult sizes
Members of the Estevan Fire Rescue Service and Estevan Police Service were in attendance of the opening ceremony, as well as members of the Lifesaving Society and people from throughout the community.
Soaring temperatures that reached as high as 40 C impacted the overall length of the outdoor event, but attendance from members of the public was still high and crowds were enthusiastic. Cake and refreshments were available to those in attendance.
According to Maureen Daoust, business manager for Woodlawn Regional Park, this project has been under development for around a year.
“Both the Estevan Lions Club and Top Torque Services donated to the park to help make this possible. The lifesaving Society has provided us with all of the signage and gave a demonstration on how to use the life jackets and stay safe in the water,” said Daoust.
The Estevan Lions Club offered a donation of up to $5,000 towards the project, an offer that was matched by Top Torque Services.
The loaner station will be based upon a rental honour system. Life jackets are available to park guests daily from 8 a.m. to 8 p.m. Patrons are encouraged to take as many life jackets as needed for the day and return them when they are finished using them.
"We want to invite and encourage everyone from the community to come down to the beach,” said Daoust.
“Our biggest priority is making sure that everyone that visits is safe and has a good time and we think this is a good way for us to ensure that.”
The Lifesaving society has assisted with the instillation of several life jacket loaner stations throughout the province, and teach the importance of water safety and the dangers involved with water activities.
“We also want to thank the Life Saving Society for helping us on this project and giving their wonderful presentation,” said Daoust.
"We wouldn’t have been able to make this possible without our donors and the Lifesaving Society providing us everything we needed."
According to Daoust, Woodlawn Regional Park’s Boundary Dam site is also currently in the beginning stages of installing new washroom facilities in the park.
“Now that the life jacket station is done our next major project is installing new bathrooms in the park,” said Daoust.
“Right now, unfortunately, all we have for public restrooms is the port-a-potties, so the new bathrooms that we’re installing will be complete with running water and flush toilets. It’s something we’ve known the park has needed for a long time so we’re really excited to finally have them being added.”
