November 18, 2015
New Adult Water Safety Campaign: "Life Jackets Worn . . Nobody Mourns"
The Corps will begin rolling out a new national adult water safety campaign over the winter, in time for next years recreation season. This campaign targets adult men because, in the past 10 years, 88% of all USACE water- related fatalities were men and 68% were between the ages of 20 and 60. Also, 84% of all water-related fatalities were not wearing life jackets and 27% of boating fatalities were from falls overboard. In addition to boating falls, the activity that caused the most water-related fatalities was swimming in undesignated areas.

This new campaign is made possible because of a partnership between the Corps National Operations Center (NOC) for Water Safety and the Corps Foundation, a non-profit foundation established to support the Corps natural resources and recreation programs. The Corps Foundation secured a grant from the Sport Fish Restoration and Boating Trust Fund that is administered by the U.S. Coast Guard and, working in cooperation with the NOC, developed the new national adult water safety campaign. This campaign is built around the slogan "Life Jackets Worn&Nobody Mourns.

The Corps Foundation, using grant funding, conducted focus groups with male boaters that either didnt wear life jackets or only wore a life jacket when they thought it was necessary. These focus groups provided essential feedback to inform the design of the new campaign and associated products. The slogan is based on focus group input that their biggest reason for starting to wear life jackets was not fear for their own lives, but fear of what will happen to those they could leave behind. These reactions were not anticipated and helped change the way the Corps is approaching messaging to this demographic.

Along with the "Life Jackets Worn&Nobody Mourns slogan, a website address PleaseWearIt.com was created that redirects to the USACE public water safety website www.CorpsLakes.us/watersafet y. The grant funding enabled production of a logo, four TV-quality video PSAs, three radio-quality audio PSAs, two posters and a mobile game app.

The logo, PSAs and posters are available to view and download from PleaseWearIt.com. The PSAs are also available on the NOCs YouTube channel https://www.youtub e.com/user/USACEwatersafety and DVIDS unit https://www.dvidshub.net/unit/USACE-WS. "Lake Guard" is the mobile game app that has been created. It is a highly competitive game designed to test the players speed, reflexes and boating safety knowledge. The game is available for free on Apple and Google Play app stores and can be downloaded on any smart devices such as phone or tablet.

Other campaign products will be available by the end of the year from the NOC, including a PSA DVD, promotional products and a communication plan to assist you in implementing this campaign. Plus, artwork and products to supplement the campaign will be produced and released throughout the year. The success of this campaign is dependent on every USACE employee utilizing and sharing it through various and multiple methods.

This is an excellent example of how our partners are working with us to invest in and promote public recreation and safety. I am very appreciative of the assistance from the Corps Foundation because, without their grant funding, this campaign would not be possible.

Point of contact for this National campaign is Pam Doty, National Water Safety Program Manager, Pamela.J.Doty@usace.army.mil, 817-886-1727.

Thanks for all that each of you continues to do every day to promote water safety. Essayons!

Best,
Edward E. Belk, Jr PE

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