Life Jacket Loaner Program Launches In Ocean City This Weekend

OCEAN CITY, NJ — A limited number of life jackets will be available to boaters at the 10th Street wharf in Ocean City beginning this weekend. The jackets will be available beginning Saturday, July 29, thanks to an Eagle Scout project by Nicholas Theis of Boy Scout Troop No. 32, city officials said this week.

They will become available following a ceremony on the bay at 10th Street at 10 a.m. The ceremony is open to the public.

Flotilla 81 of the U.S. Coast Guard Auxiliary will sponsor and manage the station. The city, American Legion Post 524 and Halliday-Leonard General Contractors have also lent their support for this project.

“Statistically, we know that the single most important factor in preventing drownings while boating is the wearing of properly fitted life jackets,” Ocean City Auxiliary Flotilla Commander Bob Babezki said. “This site was chosen due to its central location in the boating waterways behind Ocean City.”

The goal of the program is to provide life jackets for those who forgot their life jackets or whose children have outgrown their old ones, and is not intended to be the sole source of life jackets for boaters. Anyone who borrows a life jacket is expected to return it the same day.

For more information, contact Robert Babezki at 609-384-6225 or send him an e-mail at rbabezki@uscgaux-ocnj.org.

Patch file photo