*Guest entry by Gina Holmes, Public Affairs team, Ottawa 
National Lifejacket Day is May 17, and we are inviting you to help raise awareness surrounding water safety and the importance of wearing a lifejacket. Enter our photo contest to show us that you wear it by submitting the best photo of you and your lifejacket gear!
Gather with your families and friends for a group photo or take a picture in a unique location such as a pool, beach, or boat to showcase where you wear it.
Individual prizes include an iPod nano and iTunes gift cards as well as inflatable lifejackets from Mustang Canada! For all you pool lifeguards, get together with your colleagues and submit a group photo on behalf of your facility for your chance to win a class set of lifejackets from Mustang.
Every year approximately 400 Canadians die of drowning and of the 160 who drown while boating, nearly 90 per cent are not properly wearing a lifejacket.
Only 50 per cent of boat owners actually wear their lifejacket and 14 per cent of Canadians keep lifejackets on the boat, believing they will have time to find a lifejacket and put it on if they were to fall out.
As you attend cottages and begin water activities with the May long weekend approaching, be smart this summer and wear it!
How to enter:
- First, please read and follow the contest rules.
- Attach your photo to an email addressed to contest@redcross.ca with the subject line “I wear it!” Remember to include your full name, address, age and phone number.
We welcome your submissions from May 13 – 31, 2011.