Beaches of Esterillos Association of Community Harmony

We now have five registered lifeguards, they are:
Carlos A. Carrillo (Yaco)
Pedro Enrique Zeledón
José A. Chavarría
Allan Molina
Michael Venegas
Also Matthew Brown, a registered lifeguard from Flaller Beach, Florida
We rented a boat from Lalo to have ready to go if needed, with a lifejacket, and torpedoe, we made use of it on Saturday and he helped pull out two men with the help of a surfer and a longboard who was in the area, who were very far away from all of us, one had had a lot to drink.
The local police helped us in that we had several drunks and users of drugs who were not cooperating with the lifeguards, they would not come out of the water and the police gave us back-up to make sure they listened to the lifeguards. The Red cross had to take a drug user to the hospital who passed out while in the water.
Two children were rescued in Bejuco while playing in the water and the parents were not watching them. We have made it a point that every child MUST be accompanied by a parent while in the water or the children MUST join parents on the beach.
PREVENTION IS THE KEY WORD. We rather have an ungry or unhappy visitor (tourist) than a DROWNED one.
During the holidays we went from 52 lives saved to 63, ljust here in EO, luckily no one drowned here.
I had talked with the Red Cross about the fact that some beaches are without lifeguards and have dangerous waters in Puntarenas, such as Bejuco, Bandera, Este, Herradura, Hermosa, Tivives, etc., thus they covered all beaches in Puntarenas with an ambulance and lifeguards the Red Cross has San Jose. The only fatality was the head lifeguard for the Red Cross in Costa Rica, he drowned while saving others in Manuel Antonio.
Willy and Michelle Alvarez donated twelve beach umbrellas, the rental goes towards the lifeguard program. They also sponsored the training/certification of four lifeguards. Marti and Mark Blodgett are sponsoring one training/certification. The trainer is Marvin Perez, licensed lifeguard by the Asociación Costarricense de Guardavidas, who is also a lifeguard paid by the Jaco Municipality. Our lifeguards now belong to the same Association. The municipalities are beginning to see the need of lifeguards working on the Puntarenas beaches, the new Costanera Highway brings tourists to the beach in over an hour and I believe that “BEACHES WITHOUT LIFEGUARDS ARE LIKE HOSPITALS WITHOUT DOCTORS”.
The Institute of Tourism of Costa Rica ICT donated equipment and uniforms thru the Parrita Municipality.
Nelle and Charlie Ball donated two walkie talkies, great way to communicaste between towers, funds needed to purchase a couple of more walkie talkies.
We need to build one more tower to place towards the astuary on the east side, very dangerous waters and lots of people visit homes in the area, funds are needed towards this goal plus handy men to help build them. We need a quadracycle and funds to pay Lalo who handles the boat during the high season and will again help us during the month of July, schools’ vacation. We need funds to pay Matthew Brown for his labor along with the local lifeguards.
The three towers we now have were built with donations from Hotel La Sirena, Hotel Walt Paraiso, Rosemary Chamberlain, Ferreteria del Pacifico. Eric Engstrom donated tools and worked on towers, also helpers were: Mike Overton, Steve Blair, Brett Schroeder, Larry Goeche, David Madrigal, and many others whose name escape me at this moment. Lilo and Flaco helped cure the wood and painted the towers. Last year we had a fund-raiser and the Musical Group Los Chupacabras donated their concert, LowTide and El Vago donated funds and many items were raffled which were donated, proceeds paid for Holy Week labor to the lifeguards. The restaurants: La Sirena, Walt Paraiso, LowTide, El Vago, Azul and Barrilito have contributed faithfully with lunches for the lifeguards during the weekends and during Holy Week.
The Parrita Municipality is helping with some funds towards the five lifeguards, for their labor on the weekends during the month of April and helped with some funds during Holy Week.
As you can see with the HELP of the ENTIRE COMMUNITY this endeavor of SAVING LIVES is working out. We need one and all to join in sending funds. Because of the lifeguard work many families are not morning the loss of loved ones. May what you give come back to you a hundred fold.

We are working all weekends thru April. the whole month of July and back for December, January, February, March and April 2011

-Rosemary Chamberlain

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