Ohio boating safety program takes shape
COLUMBUS, Ohio – The Ohio Department of Natural Resources Division of Watercraft has partnered with The Orchard Group to develop sponsorships that promote boating safety in an effort to reduce deaths and injuries on state waterways, Orchard said in a recent release.
No taxpayer money will be spent on the program. Instead, sponsors will be sought to form a public-private partnership to market boating safety in Ohio. The agreement calls for at least $1 million to be raised each year through 2008.
“What we’re doing is bringing together sponsors who would like to associate their products with the boating safety campaign, and ODNR, which has historically sought to maintain its independence from product advertisements,” said Colleen Guezennec, co-founder of The Orchard Group, the marketing, public relations and sales consulting group that will coordinate the campaign.
“In order to come up with ways to fund an enhanced boating safety program during times of challenging state budgets, we had to think outside the box,” said Ken Alvey, chief of the Division of Watercraft. “Our goals are to reduce boating fatalities by encouraging people to wear life jackets and by increasing attendance at a wide range of boating education classes.”
Recent surveys have shown that fully 72 percent of Ohio boaters have never taken a safety course, and 34 percent rarely, if ever, wear life jackets, reports the ODNR Division of Watercraft. Over the last five years, an average of 20 Ohioans have died each year in boating accidents. Open boats are a particular target of the safety campaign, as more than half of those who drowned were in open boats that were overloaded or didn’t have enough lifejackets for every passenger, Alvey said.
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