Jasper’s efforts to educate its youth about water safety and life saving has paid off in a big way – the municipality was awarded the Terry Cavanagh Junior Lifeguard Award from the Alberta Lifesaving Society.

Jasper came out on top in the population of 7,500 and under category – a great achievement over communities that have almost double the population to choose from. 

Barbara Kusyanto, chief administrative officer for the Lifesaving Society, says Jasper did a great job topping the larger communities in its group.

“Jasper has done really well,” she said. 

The award was given to the municipality because they had the most participation in the Jr. lifeguarding programming in the entire province in their category. 

The lifeguarding program promotes fun, fitness, teamwork, active living and life-saving. 

Kusyanto says the program encourages lifeguarding in a fun atmosphere with opportunities to participate in competitions. 

“It’s delivered in a non-traditional manner,” she said. 

The program has another great bonus – there is no expensive equipment to buy and it can end up in any number of higher learning programs, including lifeguard training. 

Jasper wasn’t the only community to lead the province in lifeguard training. Hinton was given two separate awards. The first is the Anne Resek Swim For Life Award, which was given to Hinton for having the highest enrolment in their Swim For Life program in a community with a population under 15,000. The Swim For Life program helps encourage swimmers to continue in the program by teaching them skills in a non-traditional way. Instead of having the opportunity to fail a swim level, the kids can advance as they learn the skills, instead of being held back if they don’t “swim pretty enough,” said Kusyanto. 

Hinton was also given the Hayden Canadian Swim Patrol Award for its amount of participation in the Swim Patrol class, also in a population of 15,000 or less. The class teaches water safety, first aid and other water-related skills and keeps young swimmers interested and engaged in the program. 

The final award given to the Town of Hinton was the Jordan Neave Swim to Survive Memorial Award for the most participation in the Swim to Survive program in a community under 15,000.

Jasper placed third for the Anne Resek Award in its category of a population under 7,500.