Give a Little Whistle
How to wrap RBS in one small package
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Affixing the Vessel Safety Decal |
Cary, NC – April 1, 2011: Jiminy Cricket was right on the mark. When in trouble [on a boat], “Give a little whistle!” For the Coast Guard Auxiliary, a sound making device is standard equipment when doing a VSC on a paddle boat, or any boat for that matter. Flotilla 9-11 in Cary, NC took that premise a few steps further and decided to embrace the core missions of RBS into one 10 minute ‘sales call’.
At a meeting with Susan Moran, Town of Cary Public Information Officer (PIO), Jim Ashley, FSO-PA, 054-09-11 brought up the subject of “paddle boats are ‘vessels’ in the eyes of the Coast Guard.” The question posed to the PIO was, “How about adding an extra measure of safety to the canoes and kayaks at your town lake?” The PIO jumped at the opportunity. She then related all the side benefits available to the paddle boat renters, the renting staff, and the citizens of Town of Cary.
Jiminy Crickets! We both were reeling at the enthusiasm generated from this simple premise. As the project turned out, FSO-VE, 9-11, Perry Taylor provided not only a VSC decal for each of 35 vessels (canoes, kayaks, sunfish, rowboats, pedal boats) but added a free branded message whistle for each, a PV display box at the rental station, and offered the ABS course to the three rental agents, under the age of 26, who require a boating education ID card in NC to operate the powered patrol vessel
Hey, that’s better than a hat trick. Go for (a lot of) VSCs and get some PA, PE and PV opportunities at the same time. Well that’s how it’s supposed to work, isn’t it? You’ll wind up with many ways to spread the Auxiliary branded messages and maybe even recruit some Auxiliary advocates in the process.
We decided to package the whistle in a zip bag for health reasons and to prevent ‘errant whistles’ plus a branded message card for “Emergency Use Only” with logo, Flotilla name and SOS code. So here’s a required safety item that will be worn by 5000 renters each summer at one small town lake.
So, if you want to boost your annual VE numbers this year; find a paddle boat livery, pitch the Coast Guard ‘seal of
approval’ decal and give them a little whistle.
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Pedal Boats |
Emergency Whistle Pack |
~GJA 06/11/11