California Coast & Ocean

Getting the Message Out
The county water safety Committee issues bilingual press releases about the dangers of drinking while swimming. The swimming outreach, however, focuses on building survival skills. In terms of the "4 P's" of marketing, "product, price, places, and promote," the task on the Russian River may be seen as marketing the product of swimming and water-survival skills, while minimizing the price of learning to swim or avoiding risks in the river. The Vamos a Nadar programs are inviting members of the Spanish-speaking community to take advantage of swimming lessons for children at reduced cost, offering water-safety training for their parents, and free lifeguard job training for teens to promote the desire to use newly acquired skills in the community. Program partners are working with Spanish-speaking swimming and lifeguard program graduates to promote these skills through Spanish-language media, such as KBBF radio and KDTV 28, and by reaching out to people in places where they live, study, and work.

"It was Rosiris who told me," said Jenira Cheng. "She was at a table at school during a health fair. She told me there were scholarships and that I could get paid. I wanted to learn to swim after my uncle [drowned] but I didn’t know. It was never even in my mind to become a lifeguard, but I talked with Rosi. We spoke in Spanish and then English; she told me about the program. They taught me how to swim. The teacher was really patient, and now I have been working as a lifeguard." Rosiris’s outreach and encouragement led Jenira to believe she could make an impact in the community by sharing her experience, doing public speaking and trainings, working as a lifeguard, and serving as a role model.

Could Jenira’s uncle have been saved if someone who didn’t swim, or who swam poorly, had jumped into the water? Rosiris Guerra is emphatic: Without the necessary skills, trying to save others from drowning can get you killed. "There are reports of Good Samaritans dying after jumping in to try to save someone," she said. An article in the August 15, 2006, issue of the New York Sun reported that a Marine just home from Iraq, a mother, and another family member all died while attempting to rescue a four-year-old child who was caught in an undertow in a river outside Chicago. The child was rescued farther down the river.

"We’re trying to get the message out to people--there are things you can do to help save someone without going into the river yourself," Guerra said. For example, an empty Styrofoam cooler can be thrown into the water as a lifesaver, or a beach umbrella or branch can be held out over the water for the swimmer to grab. Rosiris Guerra, Jenira Chang, and Maria Moto-Fincher all have similar parting messages: Even if people can just learn this, it could save them: "Throw--Don’t Go!"

The Russian River safety program is not free of charge, by design. "If it is free, people may not even come," Guerra explained. Incentives include an additional two-week session of swimming lessons for $15 (a 75 percent discount) for graduates. Between 2004 and 2005, 200 children and 300 Hispanic parents have completed Vamos a Nadar. The pilot program for Vamos a Ser Salvavidas had a first class of five prospective lifeguards in 2005 and anticipates reaching the program capacity of 15 students. The 57-hour lifeguard training is provided on a scholarship that covers the full $250 cost and prepares graduates to complete the Red Cross lifeguard certification. Swimming lessons in Spanish for adults are being planned, and additional languages may also be possible.

Although spring is months away, planners in Sonoma County are getting ready. Moto-Fincher intends to air a longer piece on bilingual outreach and promoting the desire to learn survival skills, and the programs will soon begin recruiting. With their hard work, perhaps 2007 will bring fewer tragedies along the Russian River.

Deborah Hirst, a Coastal Conservancy project manager, has been driving her brother’s beat-up old pickup truck along the Russian River and up the Sonoma Coast since joining the Conservancy in February 2006.