Volunteers keep life jacket idea afloat

WALTERVILLE — Perhaps Becky Holmes said it best: “If the loss of 77 jackets means we saved one person, it’s worth it,” she said.

Holmes, who works the front desk of McKenzie Fire & Rescue in Walterville was talking about how 77 life jackets loaned out to river users via the district’s Life Jacket Lending Program were never returned last summer.

The district would rather see folks return the loaned life jackets than keep them. But at least it knows some swimmers and boaters along the dangerous and cold McKenzie River used them.

“We’ve had one year where we lent jackets out 800 times,” Holmes said of the program that began 10 years ago and was born of tragedy.

On Sept. 4, 1999, Darin Gladden of Springfield, and his 2-year-old son, Austin, drowned near Brown’s Hole on the Mc­Kenzie. Gladden, 30, was fishing from the rocks on the south bank of the river when his son fell in the water and Gladden dove in to try to save him. Neither was wearing a life jacket. Gladden’s 4-year-old daughter, Kelsey, watched from the river’s edge.

The drowning sparked a conversation a few months later between Dana Burwell, then McKenzie Fire & Rescue’s acting chief, now an assistant chief, and Steve Schaefers, president of the McKenzie River Guides Association, Holmes said.

What if there were a program in which people could borrow life jackets at no charge and return them when they were done using them?

The program began in the summer of 2000. The guides donated money for the program’s first 50 life jackets, Holmes said.

But the program proved so popular that they soon realized more were needed, she said.

The guides and Mc­Kenzie Masters, a statewide group of fly fishermen, held a fundraiser to buy more.

The Oregon State Marine Board has also contributed life jackets, Holmes said.

The life jackets are available for children and adults at eight participating stores along the Mc-Kenzie River.

The jackets are purchased by river guides with the McKenzie River Guides Association, who raise money from local businesses, and McKenzie Fire & Rescue maintains them and keeps track of the inventory.