Ash primary schools helicoptered lifejackets as part of national safety campaign

The Lucas Dobson Water Safety Campaign has delivered over 2000 lifejackets to schools across Kent and the UK.  Etholle Reynolds reports.

Transcript

00:00In Ash, pupils from local primary schools gathered, excitedly waiting to

00:09welcome a very special helicopter. A helicopter from the Lucas Dobson water

00:15safety campaign. In August 2019, Lucas Dobson sadly passed away after drowning

00:24in the River Stour. Following this, Lucas's dad Nathan Dobson and Peter Folding,

00:30Chief Executive of Specialist Group International, created the campaign.

00:36Well I got together with Lucas's dad Nathan Dobson and I decided let's try and

00:42move forward to help prevent drowning and I asked Nathan if that would be okay

00:48and he agreed just after he lost his son sadly. Initially the the public race

00:5313,000 pound they had a GoFundMe bought around 1,000 life jackets plus water

00:59safety equipment for the side of the river. Once that money went, now this is

01:05purely funded by my company Specialist Group International. We pay for

01:10everything now and I use my helicopter to deliver the life jackets. Peter and the

01:14campaign travel to many different primary schools and St Faith's Prep and Cartwright

01:20Kelsey Primary are the next to receive these. These are life jackets and children

01:27can rent them out as easily as library books. So far the campaign has delivered

01:33over 2,000 of these life jackets that bear Lucas's image and campaign logo. The

01:39campaign sits close to the community at St Faith's Prep and they hope to use their

01:44own facilities to further the importance of the campaign's message and resources.

01:50And actually from talking to parents in our school community, lots of parents remember

01:54joining in that search and rescue effort. So we feel really honoured to welcome the

01:59helicopter and these life-saving equipment to us. So we'll make use of these life jackets

02:05in our school swimming pool. It's so important that the children get the chance to try on the

02:10life jackets and experience just the impact they can have in the water and just how

02:14important they are. And so we'll use them in that way and then have them as a

02:18fantastic resource. With life jackets delivered, Peter and the campaign continue

02:23to spread such an important message. Etterley Reynolds for KMTV.