The Life Jacket Mission

Kayakers wearing Life Jackets

WHO WE ARE:
The Life Jacket Mission is a non-profit organization that was founded by two brothers, Nathan and Noah Chen. Our goal is to increase water saftey indoors, especially for young children. We are a group of avid teenagers that swims competitively year round in an indoor pool and also practices in the lake in the summer. On many occasions, we have witnessed young children without lifejackets in boats, kayak or paddle boards in the lake despite the fact that it is required by state law. We believe that wearing life jackets while boating is as important as driving a car with a seat belt or wearing a helmet while riding a bicycle or a motorcycle. Life jackets simply save lives. That was the main reason and motivation for the formation of the Life Jacket Mission.

Family with Lifejackets Kids with Lifejackets

OUR MISSION:
At the Life Jacket Mission, our goal is to prevent water related accidents and promote a safe water environment for all to enjoy. We help the local community by volunteering as Certified Lifeguards for various open water races and we also solicit donations from businesses and individuals to help children that may not be able to afford to buy life jackets and couldn’t borrow one from a life jacket loan center. We also teach free swim lessons in the summer to children in foster homes and in low income families.

Teaching children to swim 2 Teaching children to swim 1

IMPACT OF YOUR GIFT:
Your generous donation to our non-profit organization has a direct impact of improving water safety in Bellingham and surrounding areas. The Life Jacket Mission will be able to buy youth life jackets that we then send to various non- profit organizations that offer free kayak and boating lessons to children from low income families and send them home with a free life jackets after the training program. Those entities are local groups such as the Community Boating Center or the Bellingham Yacht Club and also the Washington State Park Boating Center which runs a Life Jacket Loaner Program. We also use the funds to buy swim gear for these young learners that learn swimming skills with us, such as swim suits and goggles, and to pay for pool entrance.

The Life Jacket Mission is a 501(c)3 organization and all donations are tax deductible. Our tax ID is 38-4119621

Teaching children to swim 3

Check us out in the Cascadia News! We were featured in the local newspaper!

For further information, please contact Nathan Chen, or Noah Chen at
nathanzchen01@gmail.com or noahchen20@gmail.com

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