Life Jacket Loaner Program

Recognizing that accidental injuries and other health and safety issues require a coordinated approach, 50 child-serving nonprofit, government service, and business providers joined efforts in 2010 to create The NCH Safe and Healthy Children’s Coalition of Collier County (the Coalition). According to the Florida Department of Health, Bureau of Vital Statistics, drowning is the leading cause of death of children ages one to four. In response to this critical concern, the Coalition has developed strong drowning prevention initiatives.

One of these initiatives is the Lifejacket Loaner Program with 15 “Kids Don’t Float, Life Jackets Do!” Life Jackets Loaner Stations in Collier County at county beaches in Naples and Marco Island plus Delnor Wiggins State Park. For a look at where you can find the Life Jackets Loaner Stations, visit this interactive Google map:

https://www.google.com/maps/d/edit?mid=zm88lpF9DW1k.kYx5lcIJPYs8.

History

In June 2013, a two-year-old was found floating face down in the water at Sugden Regional Park. A mere five minutes had elapsed without adult supervision. Had this child been wearing a life jacket, it would not have been a life-altering event. The Coalition reacted to this child’s death by organizing a life jacket loaner program entitled “Kids Don’t Float— Give Them Something That Does,” modeled after an initiative adopted in Alaska in 1997. The goal of the program is to save children’s lives by making loaner life jackets available at popular beach/lake sites for children and adults to borrow and return.

Life jackets, funded and supplied through the NCH Coalition Partners are checked weekly by U S Coast Guard Auxiliarists from Flotilla 93, Naples, Flotilla 95, Marco Island, and Flotilla 96, Wiggins Pass, to ensure proper working condition and replace life jackets when necessary.

Life jackets are available on each stand in infant, child, youth, and adult sizes. Each features logos from the Coalition as well as the Stew Leonard III Water Safety Foundation and the Naples Children & Education Foundation, who provide program funding, in addition to the “Kids Don't Float, Life Jackets Do!” program logo. Information about proper sizing is available to the borrower by clicking a Quick Response (QR) code.

Since the program’s inception, Scouts have built life jacket loaner stands as their Eagle Scout Project, and recently, Collier County Parks and Recreation personnel have built replacement stands for those lost in Hurricanes Helene and Milton, as well as additional stands that enable expansion of the program to new area beach locations.