Lifeguard provide ID bracelets for children at beach

rockin'robin

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JACKSONVILLE BEACH, Fla. -
Children get separated from their parents at the beach dozens of times every summer. Lifeguards at Jacksonville Beach say it is more likely to happen on the Fourth of July, which is one of their busiest weekends of the year.

This weekend lifeguards started releasing ID bracelets to make sure kids get reunited quickly with their parents if they do get separated.

"It's terrifying for the parents for the first couple minutes," said Red Cross volunteer Timothy Kline.

Lifeguards say it's something that isn't easy for children either. They say it only takes a few moments for a child to get lost.

Beach braclet picture "It's not frightening for the kids until they realize they're lost. Kids usually end up seeing a lifeguard chair and use that as their landmark. When they start walking down 10 or 15 yards down the beach they see the next lifeguard station north or south of them and end up walking to that one," said Kline.

That is one of the reason lifeguards came up with the ID bracelet.

"It's just like any other bracelet you'd get. Take a sharpy, you can write parents name and phone number. Anybody who finds a child or sees some frantically looking looking for a child, they can look and call the parent directly. Or they can bring the child to a lifeguard tower," said Kline.

If parents don't want to provide their name and phone number, the phone number to reach lifeguards is already listed on the bracelet so people can call that number if they find a child who is searching for their parents.

Lifeguard provide ID bracelets for children at beach | News - Home
 
I lost my daughter for a good 30 minutes at Ocean City when she was like 5 years old. It was a frightening experience! I am sure this could help a lot.
 
We went to Disneyland years back with friends. We had three kids they had four. Before we left I made up little tags with the parents name on the reverse side and pinned them to each ot their shirts. I think this was before cel phones. The people we went with did not watch their children very well so I was stressed out watching seven kids the whole day.

I think these bracelets are a great idea.
 
I read the comments and wow, some of them are harsh on about how lousy parents are if they lose their kids at the beach. What they forget is that not all of us are perfect at it. I lost my daughter because I turned away for a minute to get something from the cooler. When I got what I needed and turned to watch her, all I saw was thousands of kids in my line of view so I got up to see which one was my daughter. Looked and looked in the area where she was last seen...I remember working hard to focus because there were so many kids and they were all moving around so quickly in the water. I walked down one way looking for her and when I realized that I had lost her, I went further down looking and looking and then went back up to look. NOthing so I notified the lifeguard and I was freaking out thinking she was kidnapped or drowned as she wasn't a strong swimmer yet. Looked for another 20 mins and then a lifeguard 5 seats down the other side signaled to the lifeguard that I was with. Found her...apparently, she wanted to go back to our area but she looked at the wrong lifeguard and kept going the other way to look for our area. As a result, I was going one way and she was going the other and we ended up about a half a mile apart from each other.

Does that make me a bad parent? No.
 
I lost my son at the disney world, for about 5 minutes but it felt like it was forever to find him. it was a horrible feelings for all of us. I agree what Shel just mentioned her post as above.
 
in some beahes kids gien tags different colours so kid with orang tag go area where kids got black tag life gard see instantly orange kid in blue area etceery 100yards or so
 
I think this is a great idea. I don't have kids myself, but I would love this if I did. I remember getting lost as a child several times (like at a department store) and how panicked my mom was when she finally found me. I never thought it made her a bad mom. Kids do wander off.
 
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