It was National Drowning Prevention Week from July 15 to 21.

Local aquatic centres honoured the week by hosting educational activities open to the public.

The Altona Aquatic Centre designated a theme to each day of the week. These themes included safety lessons for life jackets, sun, pool rules, boating, and swimming.

Each day roughly 50 people participated, according to supervisor Chantel Thiessen.

"It seems like the kids are really enjoying the activities. The activities have been designed to kind of make kids think about these things and really understand what is safe and what's not safe," Thiessen said. "Sometimes they come back and try the activities again and then try to get all of them right because now they've learned it; they just become more aware of these things."

So far, the aquatic centre has not had to perform any major rescues this summer, Thiessen said.

"We've had the odd time where we would have to jump in just to help someone who maybe went in deeper water than they realized they could handle," she said. "We try to emphasize preventing big things from happening so that we don't have to perform big rescues, and so far that's been working really good."

The Winkler Aquatic Centre held Swim Smart on Thursday, which included activities like an obstacle course, lifeguard demonstrations, Swim to Survive relay race, speed slide races, and "Within Arms Reach" information session. Phillip Dueck, the Deputy Fire Chief with the Winkler Fire Department, and his team also showcased their training exercises during the event in Winkler.

"We do have equipment and training and personnel that can do a variety of things, but it all takes a little bit of time," explained Dueck, stating it takes "about 10 to 15 minutes to get to you, at least, just because of logistics of living in a rural area."

A craft called Rescue Alive can be operated by one person who will paddle out and save the person in need. A new piece of equipment featured, called the Polar 75, allows for two to four rescuers to operate the craft  on a scene. Dueck noted both crafts are able to operate in all kinds of water conditions, including the low-head dams which are common in our area.