Southland Schoolgirl Wins National Award

Last night in Wellington 11 year old Libby Ruddenklau, a Southland school girl, won a New Zealand Water Safety Merit Award for her school science project on life jacket colours.

The award recognises people who have made an outstanding contribution to water safety, and Water Safety New Zealand General Manager Matt Claridge says Libby’s school work does just that.

“We received a lot of very strong nominations for our inaugural New Zealand Water Safety Awards,” says Mr Claridge. “However, Libby’s project really stood out. She’s genuinely interested in how to prevent accidents and save lives. She put a lot of work into her science experiment and the results were overwhelmingly clear – yellow is the safest colour for lifejackets.”

Libby comes from Limehills, a small, inland town in rural Southland. Despite living around 100km from Lake Te Anau, Libby was concerned about the safety of children using the lake when they fall off their sea biscuits or water skis. She felt that while they were waiting to be picked up they were in danger of being hit by another boat – because they couldn’t easily be seen.

With this idea in mind, Libby ran a science experiment at this year’s Southland Boat Show, where she tested 20 people to find out which colour lifejacket – black, orange or yellow – was most visible. To simulate the natural environment, she positioned three lifejackets of different colours on a floor-height display with a dark green background. She had participants turn away from her display, while she changed the lifejackets’ order, then spin around and report which one caught their eye first.

The results were overwhelmingly clear – yellow is the most noticeable (and therefore the safest) colour. Libby’s other water safety ideas include the use of a flag, which skippers would raise to advise other water users that they have a person in the water nearby. This idea piqued the interest of the Southland Harbourmaster Kevin O’Sullivan, who says he would like to talk further with Libby about it.

Water Safety New Zealand’s Matt Claridge says Libby is a great role model for others and a talented, all-rounder at school.

“Her teacher sent us her nomination and says Libby is a successful sportsperson and a talented artist. She was the winning designer of this year’s Central Southland Lions Club phone book cover competition. Her study on the Birds of Fiordland received a merit award at the Southland School’s Social Sciences Fair in May this year. She’s a great kid – and a deserving winner of our award too” says Mr Claridge.

The inaugural New Zealand Water Safety Awards were presented last night at an RFD Gala Dinner at Te Papa. The awards and the dinner are part of the first ever international water safety conference ‘Charting the Future’. Hosted by Water Safety New Zealand, the conference has attracted a broad range of delegates from New Zealand, Australia, Singapore and Japan. These industry leaders, have been discussing and developing ideas to improve New Zealand’s water safety record.

Keynote speakers include industry experts on technical diving, cold water immersion and drowning prevention lessons from Asia. For more information about the conference, delegates and speakers visit www.watersafety2009.org.nz.

…Ends…

This year Water Safety New Zealand (WSNZ) celebrates 60 years of promoting and delivering water safety education to Kiwis. WSNZ has 36 member organisations, including the Accident Compensation Corporation, Surf Life Saving New Zealand, New Zealand Police and Royal New Zealand Coastguard Federation. Its mission is to, through water safety education, prevent injury and drowning.

WSNZ and its members have achieved considerable success since 1949. In fact, during the past 29 years, drowning deaths have reduced by 43 percent. However, there is still work to be done. Drowning is the third highest cause of accidental death in New Zealand (behind road vehicle crashes and accidental falls). This year alone, 87 people have drowned. Drowning affects people regardless of their age, ethnicity, gender or socio-economic background. There are steps that can be taken to prevent drowning – learning to swim and water safety knowledge are just some of the basics. To find out more, visit www.watersafety.org.nz or phone 04 801 9600.

New Zealand Water Safety Awards 2009

Media Backgrounder

The inaugural New Zealand Water Safety Awards were presented at a Gala Dinner in Wellington on Thursday, 26 November 2009. The awards were developed to help establish a culture of excellence within the water safety industry and recognise those who are achieving great things. The awards support the implementation of the New Zealand Water Safety Education Framework. Category winners each receive a $5000 contribution towards professional development.

Category Awards:

New Zealand Water Safety Award for Education 2009

Winner: Unison Lake Safety Programme, Rotorua Aquatic Centre

The programme, which has been running for five years, teaches school children survival skills in, on and around lakes. It is the first of its kind for inland areas. Rotorua District Council strongly supports the project and has included it in its Long Term Community Council Plan. The on-going financial support of commercial sponsor, Unison, has made the programme viable and sustainable. It is now being rolled out to other centres across the country.

The programme educates and physically challenges children aged between three and 13 years, offering indoor and outdoor lessons all year round. Water Safety New Zealand’s ‘River Safe’ activities are taught throughout the programme and, after practicing in the pool, children are able to test their safety skills in a lake or river environment.

New Zealand Water Safety Award for Awareness 2009

Winner: AC Baths, Taupo

Taupo’s AC Baths’ Swim for Life and Lake Taupo Water Safety programmes have dramatically improved the water safety awareness and skills of Taupo school children. The Swim for Life programme has been running for five years and has received more than 40,000 student attendances. The programme enables students aged between five and 18 years (including those with special needs) to receive 10 free (or subsidised) swimming lessons. Swim instructor training is provided free of charge to teacher aides, special needs caregivers and parents, to support the student’s learning.

The Lake Taupo Water Safety Programme, which was introduced last year, has been well received by schools, with more than 2,600 students participating so far. It has a RiverSafe component and gives students an opportunity to develop skills using rafts, kayaks, snorkeling and surf boards. During school holidays, the programme is offered to the wider community.

New Zealand Water Safety Award for Prevention 2009

Winner: Sport Northland, Whangarei

Sport Northland’s Top Energy WaterSafe and Kaurilands water safety programmes have dramatically improved the water safety awareness and skills of Northland school children. Top Energy WaterSafe is a free programme available to year one – eight school children in the Far North. It includes training and professional development for teachers enabling them to teach their students on-going swimming and water safety skills. In February 2010 Top Energy WaterSafe will reach the significant milestone of having delivered its 100,000th student lesson.

Sport Northland also manage the Kaurilands water safety programme, targeting year six – eight students in rural schools. It starts with a half day event which incorporates survival, surf and river skills and concludes with children attempting to achieve their 200m Swim for Life certificate. The programme continues with teacher training which allows them to provide ongoing water safety lessons. So far, more than 600 teachers have received this support.

Individual Awards:

New Zealand Water Safety Award for Outstanding Contribution to Water Safety 2009

Winner: Alan Haddock, Kohimarama, Auckland

Mr Haddock’s contribution to the coastguard service spans 40 years. During this time he has worked tirelessly training and educating people in boating safety. His early career saw him operate as a successful coastguard boating education tutor – and from there he has dedicated more than 25 years to boat safety education.

He is known for instigating many valuable training resources and programmes; forming the education arm of Coastguard New Zealand, representing the Coastguard on several industry bodies (including the Safe Boating Council), and holding positions on many boards and councils (including the Auckland Volunteeer Coastguard Executive). He was chairman of Search and Rescue from 1969-1976.

Water Safety New Zealand