by Brodie Thomas
Northern News Services
Published Thursday, August 28, 2008

LLI GOLINE/NORMAN WELLS - A lifejacket loaner program is making waves on the Mackenzie River and may soon be reproduced in other Northern communities.

The program started when Norman Wells resident Dolly Pierrot was speaking with Sgt. Donna Rorrison in the summer of 2006. It was shortly after a tragic boating accident near Fort Good Hope.

Dave Parlee, left, and Dolly Pierrot proudly stand by a completed lifejacket kiosk tree. The lifejackets are free to borrow at three Sahtu communities on the Mackenzie River. Each lifejacket has the name of a drowning victim on a tag. By wearing the jacket, you are honoring the memory of the accident victim. - photo courtesy of Dolly Pierrot

'"We sat down and we were discussing ways to encourage people to wear lifejackets while travelling by boat on the Mackenzie River," said Pierrot.

They decided to start a program that would make the lifejackets freely available at the dock.

While the idea of making free lifejackets available is nothing new, Pierrot and Rorrison decided to make the project more personal by putting the names of drowning victims on the lifejackets.

"We just took it a step further in personalizing them, just thinking that people would really respect loved ones that had drowned and use the lifejackets in memory of them," said Pierrot.

They began by getting permission from family members of drowning victims to use the names of their loved ones on the jackets.

Once the idea was in place, Rorrison enlisted the help of Tulita resident Dave Parlee, who now works as Tulita's bylaw officer and has many contacts throughout the NWT. Within days he had contacted friends at companies around the North and had them making contributions of time, money and materials to the project.

In order for the program to work, lifejackets had to be displayed at the boat launches. Parlee had some friends with welding skills create "kiosk trees" out of scrap metal.

"Sahtu Helicopters was kind enough to fly the completed trees to Tulita and Fort Good Hope. They used it as a training exercise for their new pilots. It was a perfect sling operation for them," said Parlee.

There are now memorial lifejackets in Tulita, Norman Wells, and Fort Good Hope. Pierrot said 60 lifejackets were purchased, 20 for each community. At the end of the 2007 boating season, all 60 lifejackets were returned. There are plans to purchase more jackets for the 2009 season.

Pierrot said it is not unusual to find lifejackets from one community turning up on another community's tree kiosk. She said as long as they are available for the next person, she's not concerned which community they end up in.

She said the program is taking on a life of its own. There are plans to build a lifejacket tree for Jackfish Lake, a popular recreation spot just outside of Norman Wells.

"I did get a call from Deline and they're interested in starting a lifejacket tree program over there," she said.

Both Pierrot and Parlee feel that having names on the jackets is what has made this program a success.

Pierrot said he was at the boat launch in Fort Good Hope one day when someone returned to the dock and threw his jacket on the ground.

"There was a young fellow there who saw this happen. He said 'Hey, that's named after my granddad. You pick that up,'" said Parlee.

The person picked up the lifejacket and apologized.