A Fun Environment for Teaching an Important Lesson
Parked cars stretched from Water Rampage’s gates clear to the highway’s frontage road, each bringing a family, part of our shared community, together for an event filled with immense joy but also an important lesson in summertime safety. The joy was obvious: the thrilled screams of children zipping down the water park’s newest, towering water slides, bursting out into the open water, plunging deep and resurfacing with smiles on their faces, all before they undoubtedly made the ascent again to the top of the slide. Parents laughed and convened at the ends of the pools, watching their children and others, focusing on that communal safety so common to our community. UMC’s volunteers, clad in their Service is Our Passion t-shirts, thread between educational groups and general administering to an event hosting hundreds of parents and children. The scene, with its occasional commotion and carefree play, was reminiscent of many of our youths, where water, wildness, and whimsy were the agenda of the day—summer heat is here, and what better reprieve is there than a pool or river or lake? What might have seemed different was that nearly every child and many adults wore issued and properly-fitted lifejackets, all supplied, for free, as part of a broader educational effort by UMC to protect the community that means so much to us.
A Mix of Education Meant to Save Lives and Help Others Do the Same
At the core of UMC’s third annual Water Safety Event was its valuable educational component—an effort of Trauma & Burn Services supporting our hospital’s Level I Trauma and Pediatric Level II Trauma designations. Those entering the park were taught CPR in convenient group settings by UMC EMS, a skill proven time and time again to save lives. Due to generous donations by both REMAX of Lubbock and Cabela’s, UMC’s talented team of volunteers spent individual time with each of the young attendees, properly fitting lifejackets, educating people on their usefulness and safety, before giving the jackets away to them and their families to keep for future fun in the sun. Groups migrated quickly from point to point, learning these valuable lessons and becoming part of a larger body able to teach others about UMC’s educational opportunities, or about the life-saving skills themselves—a sort of building of foundational safety that changes a community for the better and part of UMC Children’s overall mission in providing events like these. Once taught a bit about CPR, well-fitted and jacketed, the children were sent on into the park safer than before and better prepared.
UMC Children’s Commitment to Our Community and Why Your Involvement Makes a Difference (No Matter What You Do)
While the Water Safety Event is a clear way that our caring staff helps make a difference in our community, every person, every member of Team UMC, contributes to our continued success and, more broadly, the fundamental mission of healing that UMC Children’s envisages. For example, at the event itself, represented was the UMC Cancer Center handing out sunscreen, Lubbock Pediatric Dentistry and Oral Surgery handing out toothbrushes, Betty M. Condra Charter School distributing water bottles kindly donated by United Supermarkets, all providing a holistic approach to summertime safety—cancer prevention, dental care, and hydration awareness respectively—to keep within our community’s consciousness that safety is a broad and all-encompassing effort with several touchpoints. But, too, we should acknowledge the work of the hospital system’s medical staff, who are always prepared to help children and adults when needed, the wider staff that supports the administration and day-to-day requirements of a hospital system, and those that work consistently to make UMC the hospital that our community trusts with their care. Together, our team efforts make a real difference in our region, and for those differences, each of us on Team UMC should be proud.
A Special Thanks to All of Our Donors, Sponsors, Partners, and Vendors:
- RE/MAX of Lubbock
- United Supermarkets
- Cabela’s
- Betty M. Condra Charter School
- Lubbock Pediatric Dentistry and Oral Surgery
- ASQ Screenings
