2013! A Look Back At It

Filed in News, Operation Recap | Posted by Henry Reyes on December 30, 2013

2013! It was our biggest year yet! Thank you to all of our supporters, we couldn’t have done it without you!

To summarize our biggest moments from 2013…

Henry Reyes Congress

“In 2013, ISLA launched a fully functional prototype of the worlds first Global Drowning Tracker(c). Not only did GDT get the global drowning prevention community talking, but it elevated ISLA to whole new level! ISLA presented the GDT to a Congressional Committee briefing in Washington D.C. this past May.” – Henry Reyes, ISLA President

europe_lifeguards

“2013 was our biggest year to date. We moved ISLA to a new continent doing our first training course in Macedonia. Even more exciting is the bigger projects we have planned for 2014, to continue to save lives around the globe!” – Olin Patterson

Dominican-Republic-lifeguards

” This year we had our fifth anniversary! The first year we had one trip to Nicaragua to lifeguard alongside their guards during Semana Santa. And this year we were able to go to five different countries to provide lifesaving trainings and educate on drowning prevention. We had our first junior lifeguard course in the Dominican Republic, a junior lifeguard course in Mexico, had our first course in the US and in Macedonia, and we lifeguarded in Nicaragua.  With all these trips we met wonderful people and had many new volunteers who are absolutely amazing are are so great to work with. I’m looking forward to our next year!” – Raquel Lizarraga

Koon-World-Confrence-on-Drowning

“2013 was a whirl wind year of incredible new projects, serious progress in our existing projects, great new connections made in countries all over the world with future collaboration in the works, and fantastic growth in the sustainability and operationalization of ISLA Lifesaving Development.  It is hard to believe that in one year, we established an annual Lifeguard Exchange in Chile with the Guardavidas Seal, made and learned from great new friends at the National Drowning Prevention Alliance conference in Florida, launched and shared the Global Drowning Tracker with members of the U.S. Congress in Washington D.C., conducted a lifeguard course on Lake Michigan with our friends from the Great Lakes Surf Rescue Project, participated in the World Conference on Drowning Prevention in Potsdam, Germany, and began forward looking collaborative work with other lifesaving development groups from Florida (Lifeguards Without Borders) and the U.K. (Royal National Lifeboat Institution and Nile Swimmers).  I still pinch myself when I look back on 2013, and cannot wait to see where the ISLA crew is one year from now!  Happy New Years!” – Will Koon

Henry Reyes Lifeguard Instructor

We are looking forward to 2014! We can’t wait to share with you the new and exciting things we have planned for the next year! This global drowning epidemic compels us to action as we pioneer new ways to think about drowning in the developing world and effective solutions that will save thousands of lives. Help us prevent drowning and continue to reach people in need around the world, donate to isla!