Life Jacket Program

Posted on: October 21, 2015 - 1:14pm

Garry Buckminster
Harbormaster
Shellfish Constable

For Immediate Release
July 27, 2011

WAREHAM HARBORMASTER DEPARTMENT TO LOAN FREE LIFE JACKETS TO CHILDREN THIS BOATING SEASON

This year the Wareham Harbormaster Department is continuing to help keep kids safe while on the water by participating in the BoatU.S. Foundations Life Jacket Loaner Program for Kids!  This program, made possible by the BoatU.S. Foundation for Boating Safety and Clean Water, allows boaters to borrow a child’s life jacket for the day or a weekend, at no charge.

Here’s how the Life Jacket Loaner Program works.  If a boating family discovers they don’t have enough properly fitting children’s life jackets on board, they can simply visit or call the Wareham Harbormaster Department and sign out an infant, child, or youth life jacket.  When they’ve finished boating for the day, they can return the jackets.   The Wareham Harbormaster Department was awarded a kit of 12 life jackets, allowing hundreds of children to stay safer on the water,

If you would like to borrow a jacket, stop by the Wareham Harbormaster’s seasonal office located on the Onset Pier or call (508) 295-8160 to learn more about the Wareham Harbormaster Department’s participation in the program.

There are over 500 BoatU.S.  Foundation Life Jacket Loaner sites located all over the country.  Combined, these sites loan out jackets more than 90,000 times a year.  The BoatU.S. Foundation Life Jacket Loaner program was launched in 1997 and was the first program of its kind in the United States.  To learn more about the national effort to put kids in life jackets, visit http://www.boatus.com/foundation.