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Tiffany Ayalik, left, Tanya Silke, Suzanne McAstocker, Kaley Mackay, and Summer Silke from Lifeguards for Lodune, pose with some safety equipment at Long Lake Beach on Wednesday. The group is hoping to start patrolling the beach in the coming days to help keep an "extra set of eyes" on children in the water. - Cody Punter/NNSL photo

SOMBA K'E/YELLOWKNIFE
The tragic drowning of seven-year-old Lodune Shelley on June 27 has left many people frustrated and looking for someone to blame.

One group of concerned residents, however, is determined to rise above the finger-pointing and negativity by taking action to prevent further tragedies.

"I saw a lot of people playing the blame game in the last few days, but I wanted to try and do something productive," said Lifeguards for Lodune founder Tanya Silke, a nursing student at Aurora College.

"Many of us saw what happened last year with the near drowning (of a young girl at Long Lake), it was the same thing. The issues got brought up but nothing got done."

Rather than wait for the government to do something, Silke, who is good friends with Shelley's mother and has two children of her own, decided to form a group that could help parents watch their children at the beach.

"I just felt the best way to honour Lodune's life and bring the community together was to start this group," said Silke. "It's a busy beach. It's impossible for parents to keep their eyes on their kids 24/7, no matter how careful they are."

According to Silke, Lifeguards for Lodune already has 20 volunteers who are prepared to start patrolling the beach by next weekend. Silke says she still hopes the territorial government and city will bring back lifeguards to the beach. However, with school out for the summer, she is focused on ensuring children using the beach right now are safe.

"We're an extra set of eyes that can be used and we're specifically using our eyes to scan the beach and the waters," said Silke, who plans to have at least three volunteers on the beach every Friday, Saturday and Sunday for the rest of the summer.

The group also plans to undertake a public education program on water safety during its patrols, as well as through a website, which Silke plans to set up over the next week.

"There's a lot of things we need to talk to the public about with regards to safety," said Silke.

"For example, you should never approach a drowning person from the front."

Silke has already started looking for donations to purchase supplies, including a defibrillator, binoculars and a life ring. She also has a company in town designing T-shirts for volunteers with the words 'beach-walkers' printed on them.

While the group is calling itself Lifeguards for Lodune, Silke emphasizes members are not claiming to be lifeguards. She said although half of the volunteers who have come forward are certified to provide CPR, none of them are certified as lifeguards.

"We're just normal citizens, down by the beach," she said.

Silke says she met with Mayor Mark Heyck on Tuesday afternoon to discuss her plans and was cautioned that having a group patrolling the beach could expose them to liability issues in the event of an accident.

"We are very aware of liability issues," said Silke. "At the same time, I consider ourselves unofficial, and it's better to have that than nothing."

Silke is not the only one in Yellowknife who has decided to take matters into her own hands in the wake of the recent tragedy.

Trevor Kasteel had previously told Yellowknifer he plans to build lifeguard chairs at the beach to pressure the city and GNWT to fill them. Lifeguard services at the beach were cancelled in 2004 after the city and GNWT couldn't agree who should pay for the $21,000 contract.

On Tuesday, Kasteel received a call from Richard Zieba, director of tourism and parks with the Department of Industry, Tourism and Investment, which controls Long Lake Beach and surrounding Fred Henne Territorial Park, who told him the government was contracting the Alberta-NWT chapter of the Canadian Lifesaving Society to assess the beach on July 15, and that he should hold off building the chairs.

Kasteel says the conversations he had with Zieba were positive, and that the department has expressed its willingness to work with him.

"They were definitely not discouraging," said Kasteel. "They've committed to working with me on it, and it's happening reasonably fast."

Kasteel says he also received a call from David Ramsay, the minister responsible for the tourism department, who told him he supports his lifeguard chair initiative .

Yellowknifer tried to reach Ramsay for comment, but Brenda Norris, a media liaison for cabinet, said the minister would not be commenting on the matter.

Zieba told Yellowknifer the Lifesaving Society will be conducting an audit of Long Lake Beach, after which it will submit a set of recommendations to enhance safety measures there.

Yellowknifer posted a video on Wednesday that shows a sudden drop off near the beach shore, which has given some parents cause for concern.

Range Lake MLA Daryl Dolynny, who used to be a lifeguard like fellow MLA Robert Hawkins, says the video points out an obvious danger at the beach many parents don't even know about.

"These are hazards that, if you don't know, you should know," said Dolynny, who suggested fixing the holes would be a simple way of improving safety at the beach.

"We should be taking a look at that. I'm not a structural engineer or an expert by any stretch, but I believe that there should be something that should be able to put there that keeps the pit from growing," he said.

Dolynny planned to meet with Lifeguards for Lodune on Thursday afternoon, and says he hopes to help them understand some of the challengers they face, particularly with regards to liability.

"You have to applaud them. At the end of the day, it's their decision what they want to do," said Dolynny.

"My job is just to help them through the program and all the policies and liabilities they could be facing."

When asked whether he thinks lifeguards should return to Long Lake, he said "that's something that we should take a look at along with the city of Yellowknife."

Silke said she was looking forward to meeting with Dolynny, but she insisted the group will not stop patrolling the beach until the government takes firm action.

"We're not going to stop until there's lifeguards at that beach," said Silke.

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