Email Chelsea Jensen at cjensen@westhawaiitoday.com.
By CHELSEA JENSEN
Stephens Media
As Neil Swartz struggled to swim in waters 50 yards off Kahaluu Beach Park in Keauhou earlier this week, the Montana resident began to think his time had come.
“I guess this is going to be it,” Swartz remembered thinking as he thrashed and splashed trying to find somewhere to stand inside Kahaluu Bay. “I got into trouble, I panicked and I couldn’t get my breath. And, then, I heard something.”
That sound the Chester, Mont., resident heard was the voice of Ricky Alvarez, a Hawaii Fire Department lifeguard stationed at the county beach park located off Alii Drive. Alvarez had apparently seen Swartz struggling in the ocean and had come to his aid without the visitor even knowing.
“It felt so good to hear and see him on his board,” Swartz said. “He was there, he was very professional, talked to me, calmed me down and gave me the confidence to swim back in while he followed.”
Though he was able to get in to shore on his own strength, of course under the watchful eye of Alvarez, Swartz said he is forever grateful to Big Island lifeguards and the fire department.
“It wasn’t a big scene, or the big drama thing, but it was really special,” he said. “I am very grateful to these people. I don’t even know how to explain it.”
To show his thanks, he made a cash donation Saturday to nonprofit The Daniel R. Sayre Memorial Foundation, which works year-round to supply the department with the equipment it needs.
“Equipment is vital to your operation and what you can do,” he said. “These guys need all the tools in their toolbox that they can get.”
A couple dozen people, along with about 20 members of the Hawaii Fire Department, ascended upon the beach park to take part in the giving of an array of equipment to the department’s Ocean Safety Division. The foundation will hold similar events later in the year to present equipment to the department’s other divisions.
Donated by the foundation to the Ocean Safety Division on Saturday was $10,000 worth of equipment, including four rescue boards, two automated external defibrillators, four binoculars and eight megaphones, said Laura Mallery-Sayre, who co-founded the foundation.
Also during the event, Mallery-Sayre announced the foundation is working to raise $35,000 to fund emergency medical technician training for lifeguards. Without EMT training, lifeguards are limited in the care they can provide until medics who have the training arrive.
Funding raised so far includes about $8,000 from Paradise Helicopters, which has donated a percentage of its December sales for the past two years, and about $5,000 from Shane Dorian’s Keiki Surf Classic event, she said.
“They are all doing a great job as it is, but the lifeguards feel they would be better prepared and better able to support people they are helping to rescue if they had this training,” Mallery-Sayre said, noting all Oahu lifeguards are trained EMTs. “We’re making strides toward this effort and, hopefully, by the of this year we’ll have the EMT training program in full swing.”
The Daniel R. Sayre Memorial Foundation was created by Mallery-Sayre and her husband, Frank Sayre, in 1997 after their 25-year-old son, Daniel, died in a hiking accident at Kapaloa Falls in Pololu Valley. Because the department didn’t have ropes long enough to repel some 500 feet and other required equipment, 10 hours passed before rescue personnel were able to recover Daniel’s body.
With gifting of equipment and fundraising, the foundation has raised more than $800,000 in sponsorships and donations since its creation, Mallery-Sayre said. During the foundation’s last dinner event, which included silent and live auctions, $107,000 was raised.
“This (giving) has only been positive (for the department) especially during these times of financial crisis and all the challenges we have,” said Battalion Chief Gerald Kosaki, who oversees the department’s equipment and special operations. “This foundation and the outpouring of community support is amazing.”
For more information or to donate, visit danielsayrefoundation.net.
Email Chelsea Jensen at cjensen@westhawaiitoday.com.