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June 18, 2025
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Remember kids (or adults) don’t float
Safe Kids Fairbanks is led by the Fairbanks Safe Kids Coalition at Fairbanks Memorial Hospital, which provides dedicated and caring staff, operation support and other resources to assist in achieving our common goal: keeping your kids safe.
If you spend any time in and around waterways during the eternal light of an Alaska summer, chances are you have seen a Kids Don’t Float lifejacket loaner station. But do you know what they are all about? These stations can be found at harbors and boat launches all throughout the 49th state, providing water safety education, and lifejackets that can be borrowed at no cost and returned after use.
“They can use it for the day, they can keep it for the summer, they can return it to a loaner station at another location, whatever works,” said Safe Kids Fairbanks Coordinator Angela Adams.
While the sign says kids don’t float, the loaner stations include lifejackets approved for use by both children and adults. Three-quarters of Alaska’s population lives on a waterway, and Alaska consistently ranks in the top 3 in annual drowning deaths in the United States.
Kids Don't Float began in Homer, Alaska in the mid-1990’s, spread throughout the state, and the model has been adopted nationwide. Safe Kids Fairbanks spends the summer rounding on the loaner stations located throughout the interior, making sure they are stocked with lifejackets ready for use.
“We partner with the Scouts and the Borough Parks and Rec Department to take care of the loaner boards at Graehl Landing, Pioneer Park, Harding Lake, Tanana Lakes, Chena Lakes, and the Chena, Salcha and Clearwater rivers,” Adams said. “We spend a lot of our summer gathering and restocking lifejackets, but if it saves just one life it’s well worth it.”
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The loaner station at Chena Kiwanis Park, located at the end of Chena Small Tracts road in Fairbanks, had been damaged throughout the years to the point where it was unusable.
Enter Slater Jones and Scouts BSA Troop 1078, or ’78 as they call themselves. Jones, a 2025 graduate of Lathrop High School, was looking for a project for the final step in his Eagle Scout journey.
Slater Jones at the Chena Kiwanis Park Loaner Station “I was looking for possible ways I could help the community out, and I heard that the last sign was knocked over,” Jones said. “I went to the hospital because I heard that a person named Angela Adams there was looking for someone to replace the sign.”
Jones and his troop spent the next 2-3 weeks gathering all the supplies, completely rebuilding the donor station framework, replacing the sign and eventually installing the newly constructed station at the park. Jones met with Adams in mid-May to stock the station with new lifejackets. He says he and his troop learned many things throughout the project and is proud to play a role in water safety.
“That’s the goal of these lifejacket stations, as you can see the sign says kids don’t float,” Jones said.
Members of Troop 1078 that helped with the project:
Robyn Atkins Adam Davies Daton Huntington
Slater Jones Wade Jones Vince Mathews
Patrick McCann Carl Rayburn Henry Rayburn
Johnnie Robertson
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