Life preservers at Racine beaches already put into action
RACINE, Wis. - After four drownings at Racine beaches, the Rotary Club and the fire department worked together to put public life preserves on beaches for everyone to use, especially children.
Leiah Carter is on a walk with her three kids. The family is preparing for Labor Day celebrations, which include swimming.
"We definitely use life preserves for our kids," said Leiah Carter.
If Carter forgot to bring a life preserver to the beach, now Racine beaches have some of the public to use.
"Makes me feel good, makes me feel that, you know, the families and family life is very important to the Racine community," said Carter.
After four drownings in Racine, the Rotary Club and the firefighters union worked together to get public access to life preservers.
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North Beach now has two public displays of life preservers and Zoo Beach has one – each with 20 vests and three floatation rings inside.
"We want these to be used every single day. We don't want them just sitting in the display for people to look at, we want them to be utilized," said Chris Terry, Racine Rotary Club president.
Just two days after the life preserved display was installed at North Beach, the Racine Fire Department said there was a call for a water rescue of a woman two far from the buoys. She did have a flotation device. A civilian boat picked her up and the woman did not need medical help.
"If you’re not 100% comfortable with swimming put one of the life jackets on," said Terry. "The safer we can make our beaches for our residents and for our visitors the better off we all are."
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As moms like Leiah Carter would agree, safety first.
"I definitely think that’s a great safety feature, especially for parents to have at their disposal. We love our kids and we definitely want to protect them as best as we can," said Carter.
The Rotary Club president says they have a lot of extra life vests and rings in storage in case any of them need to be replaced.
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