Royal Canadian Marine Search and Rescue Station 27 Nanaimo popular Kids Don’t Float program of the will be one of the feature displays at this weekend’s Nanaimo Boat Show from Thursday to Sunday. Rescue craft and crew will also be at the show throughout the weekend.
Show times are as follows:
Thursday, April 12th, 2018: 12pm – 6pm
Friday, April 13th, 2018: 10am – 6pm
Saturday, April 14th, 2018: 10am-6pm
Sunday, April 15th, 2018: 10am – 3pm
The Kids Don’t Float program features large boards with colourful graphics along with a supply of children’s personal floatation devices (PFDs). These boards are installed at marinas, boat launching ramps, parks and swimming areas. Kids Don’t Float is run on an honour system and offers free day use of PFDs for your children.
New boards will be installed at the Brechin Boat Ramp this spring. The board will be two-sided, facing the main boat launch and the rescue station and second launch. It will be near the fish cleaning station at the top of the ramp. Each board will have 9 loaner children’s PFD.
These loaner stations for children’s PFDs are very popular throughout the province and RCM-SAR stations receive many requests for new locations. By the end of 2005 there were 14 KFD boards set up across the province. More recently, Mustang Survival, a manufacturer of personal safety equipment, has joined us as a partner to supply the program with additional PFDs. In time, there will be 25 boards set up in the province.
The RCMP has also joined the Kids Don’t Float program and has signed a memorandum of understanding with RCM-SAR to place stations in remote communities on the coast. The purpose of this joint effort is to encourage more children in the remote areas to wear a PFD while on the water. The program gives the RCMP an opportunity to develop a non-enforcement profile with the children and youth in these communities while providing an important service.
