Sweeney-Phillips-Stockwell-Ferguson.

We all remember the adage "never ask anyone to do anything you wouldn't do."  In District 9ER, that's exactly the attitude the District EXCOM has taken.  National Safe Boating Week '06 (NSBW) presented the perfect opportunity to prove that.

Under the direction of John Stockwell, DSO-PA/PB, the NSBW Committee was asked to come up with an activity that would allow members of the EXCOM to participate and promote the usage of lifejackets by the boating and fishing public.

Fox Reporter

The EXCOM took the attitude that reaching the most people in the shortest period of time meant seeking media attention in a major metropolitan market. Cleveland, Ohio was just that market.

Stockwell, although living in Central New York State, sought the assistance of the Auxiliary membership in Division 7, those that call Cleveland home.  They provided him a list of the media stations and newspapers that operate in the Cleveland area.  Auxiliarist Stockwell also contacted the 9th District’s Coast Guard Public Affairs Office seeking support for the project..

An indoor swimming pool was secured.  This was where a practical demonstration on personal flotation devices (PFD) usage could be done.  "It was all just a matter of logistics," says Stockwell.  "Once everything came together, the work could be done at home by simply using the telephone and the Internet to nail down the specifics."

With “all the ducks in a row,” the various media outlets were called asking for a couple of volunteers to assist and eventually report on the project.  The volunteers would have to be willing to enter the water and experience what it would mean to be in the water after a sinking, and then having to locate and put on a lifejacket.  To sweeten the situation even more, Stockwell says he had one of the volunteers shout and scream as if in real distress, while another volunteer had to struggle to get a lifejacket out for use and throw it to the “victim.”

Volunteer in the water

Stockwell told the volunteers, “The one thing we often hear in the Auxiliary is that it'll never happen to me. I always say I hope so.”  Hopefully the reporters got that message first hand.

Participating in the morning efforts at the Hilton Garden Inn in Cleveland, OH at the NSBW event was District Commodore James J. Phillips, and Captain Scott Ferguson, USCG, Sector Buffalo Commanding Officer. Both were steadfast in their insistence for consistent use of PFDs for safety’s sake.

-SK