Swimming and Water Safety

National Lifejacket Day is on Thursday, May 14, and you're invited to celebrate with us!
While National Lifejacket Day might look different this year, there are a number of ways you and your family can participate, share knowledge, and help spread the word about lifejacket safety.

Not everyone knows that some dogs aren't natural swimmers, and even if they are we need to account for their water safety as well. Whether playing by a pool or walking near potentially thin ice, animal trainer Christie Springs wants to make sure we are including our furry friends when we talk water safety. 

Thirty years ago, in August 1989, Barb McNeill of Summerside, PEI, swam the English Channel, one of 15 Canadians to date and the only one from PEI who has done so. Decades later, her passion for swimming and water safety is perhaps rivalled only by the love of her golden retrievers.

Swim badges are an exciting part of Red Cross Swim Lessons. When children are recognized for mastering swimming and water skills in their current Red Cross Swim  level and earn a swim badge – it’s something worth celebrating! We encourage you to celebrate your child’s accomplishment by giving this meaningful item the place it deserves. Check out 5 DIY ways you can keep swim badges as mementos.

When my youngest son, Kai, turned 2 years old I thought it was time to enroll him in swim classes. While checking the options available for him, I found the Red Cross Swim Preschool Program.  It looked very exciting as they use animal mascots for each level of the program and integrate songs and activities into the lessons to make it fun and engaging for kids.

At first glance, laying on an inflatable toy in shallow water seems pretty safe, after all, the water isn’t deep and there is a floating toy right there. Recently, a family’s trip to the beach in Nova Scotia proved to be a harrowing reminder of why this is not the case.

Jim and his wife always remind their friends how important it is to wear their lifejackets when they go out on the water.

A few years ago, they were out fishing in a Saskatchewan provincial park with another couple. Jim remembers asking his wife if she had caught a fish. That’s when he noticed that she appeared to be dozing off.
 

When our daughter Ruby was six months old, we enrolled in Red Cross lessons at our local pool. Those first few lessons were tough, with a crying unhappy baby but we stuck with it. Very quickly Ruby started to gain confidence, and with that a love of the water. She is so proud of every level she completes and looks forward to spending time at the pool each week. This past winter Ruby started synchronized swimming, and those Red Cross swimming lessons helped her pick up the choreography and strokes more quickly.  Those basic swimming skills are the foundation of all water activities like diving, snorkelling, paddle boarding, skim boarding and more.