New kiosk offers free life jacket loaners at Woodman Boat Landing
Standing in front of the new life jacket loaner station placed at the Woodman Boat Landing this month are (from left) Friends of the Lower Wisconsin Riverway (FLOW) Dave Rozelle and John Jensen, along with Prairie Rod and Gun Club members Dennis Kirschbaum, Rick Lange and Mike Hazen. (Photo by FLOW president Timm Zumm)
The back of the racks during construction show the new DNR-marked life jackets and ring buoy available to river users at the Woodman Boat Landing. The PFDs are a variety of sizes, from infant to adult extra large.
By Correne Martin
Free loaner life jackets for river users are now available at the Woodman Boat Landing and beach, thanks to four area outdoorsmen clubs and the Friends of the Lower Wisconsin Riverway (FLOW).
Spearheaded by Prairie du Chien Rod and Gun Club leader Dennis Kirschbaum and FLOW president Timm Zumm, the Kids Don’t Float Life Jacket Loaner Station has come to fruition at the landing, which has a history of drowning tragedies.
According to previous news reports, in August 2016, a 28-year-old Michigan man who didn’t know how to swim died after being swept away by current at the Woodman Boat Landing. Also, back in August 2000, a mother and her three children drowned just downstream from the landing after one child lost his footing and went under, and the other three were swept away in the current, trying to save him.
Kirschbaum quoted, though the river, in and of itself, is not dangerous, it is very unforgiving of mistakes made upon it.
This is the type of feeling that got the ball rolling in January 2017, toward filling the life-saving need with free loaner personal flotation devices (PFDs).
“We wanted some type of devices there, particularly a throwing device that could be taken to the beach, and if somebody got in trouble, they could just grab that and float (rather than drown),” Kirshbaum explained.
So Kirschbaum wrote letters to the Bloomington, Boscobel and Wauzeka sportsmen’s clubs and FLOW asking for the organizations to join the Prairie Rod and Gun Club in putting a PFD kiosk at the landing and beach. The letters requested donations toward the approximate $1,000 project. Each sportsmen’s club gave $200 and FLOW picked up the rest.
Each organization agreed and then the rod and gun club gave presentations regarding the need of the loaner station to the Grant County Highway Commission and Lower Wisconsin State Riverway Board.
“They are the ones who mow and take care of the property,” Kirschbaum said.
Upon their approval, the project moved forward and arrangements were made to purchase supplies and new life jackets.
Once the high river water receded, six men gathered at the boat landing mid-July to install the loaner station. The kiosk consists of brown treated wood that accommodates open racks stocked with PFDs of varying sizes from infant through adult extra large. There are also a couple throwable devices and one ring buoy on the racks.
Kirschbaum is happy knowing that just the presence of this new amenity will encourage boaters, canoers and beach-goers to act more safe on the river. He hopes the DNR-marked PFDs will be used, cared for and returned to the kiosk (where they can hang to dry) with each use.
In addition to this loaner station, there are 10 others on the Lower Wisconsin Riverway, he added. Some of the PFDs at the LWR loaner stations are gently used and were part of the Prairie Rod and Gun Club’s old program, PFDs for Tots, through which the Prairie du Chien Family Resource Center housed and rented life jackets to community members.
Kirschbaum said there are also two kiosks along the Mississippi River in Prairie du Chien, at the city marina boat landing and Campion Boat Landing.
With free resources like this so easily available, the project volunteers simply hope people use them. Kirschbaum concluded, “We can give people all the life jackets in the world but that’s no good unless they use them.”
