WESTFIELD — A Westfield Boy Scout is hoping to leave a lasting mark on the community by helping to prevent accidental drownings at two local parks.
On Monday, during a regular meeting of the Westfield Recreation Commission, high-school senior Zachary Carvalho presented his plans to install long-term lifesaving stations comprised of 24-inch floatation rings and 100 feet of rope at various locations throughout both Brightwood and Mindowaskin Parks.
According to information provided by the World Health Organization, approximately 236,000 people die worldwide from drowning each year. Zachary said he would like to do whatever he can to keep his friends and neighbors safe.
“Teens and adolescents are more likely to drown in natural bodies of water than people of any other age,” said Zachary, who plans to install four lifesaving stations at each park as part of his Eagle Scout project. “I would like to set up informational posts around the stations and would also possibly want to host a few seminars in community spaces to raise awareness.”
Each station, he said, will be equipped with an auditory alarm that will sound once the plastic casings surrounding the rings are opened. The warning sound, he said, should help to alert others to trouble and will hopefully prevent damage and vandalism.
The recreation commission applauded Zachary for his efforts, but added that it would be important to run the project by groups like the Friends of Brightwood Park to make sure that the lifesaving stations would not interfere with the natural state of the parks.
“We have a lot of folks around here who are concerned about the aesthetics of our parks, and while I think this is a fabulous idea, I just want to make sure that everyone is on the same page,” said Commission Chair Jennifer Gilman.
The commission also led a discussion on Monday surrounding this year’s community pool memberships and other new initiatives in anticipation of the upcoming summer season.
“We moved most of our renewals to an online portal this year, and it has been very successful,” said Megan Schaffer, the town’s director of recreation. “We already have over 7,100 renewals in, and it’s only the beginning of March. We’re ecstatic.”
Now that returning members have had the chance to reserve their spots, Ms. Schaffer said, the town will open up the remaining membership slots to residents on the wait list.
“We’ll be releasing a good amount of people off of the wait list, but we’re going to be sold out pretty quickly. For those of you that don’t know or don’t remember, we top out at 9,700 memberships. The sooner we hit that number, the sooner we can all start to zero in on the actual season itself,” Ms. Schaffer said.
Residents from Westfield and from neighboring communities who have been waitlisted should expect to hear from the town about pool membership opportunities this week.
The next meeting of the Westfield Recreation Commission is scheduled to be held at 7:30 p.m. on Monday, April 1, in the conference room at the Town Hall.
