Celebrating a dedicated instructor

Royal Life Saving WA gave a well-deserved award to one of our Swim School Coordinators this week, for her amazing work in overseeing the Women’s Only swimming program at Cannington Leisureplex over the past few years.

Liz Fowler is a dedicated swim instructor who is involved in many of Royal Life Saving WA’s programs with at-risk communities, not only in Perth but also outside the metro area. One of the programs that she’s been particularly influential in is the multicultural women’s program at Cannington, where she’s seen participant number triple in the past two years.

The Women’s Only swimming program is focused on teaching basic and intermediate swimming and water safety skills to women from countries where this kind of education is not as much part of the cultural fabric as it is here in Australia. It is designed to ensure that new arrivals can learn these vital skills, to enable them to enjoy the many water activities that are part of the Australian way of life.

Alarmingly, over the past ten years 137 people have drowned in Western Australia who were born overseas, accounting for 40% of drowning deaths, which makes programs like these crucial to reducing drowning rates among immigrants to our state.

Liz was honoured with a Royal Life Saving WA Associate Award for five years of service to the society, at a special morning tea at Cannington Leisureplex this week. It comes as she steps out of the Women’s Only program at Cannington to focus more time on her own Royal Life Saving Endorsed Swim School, Swim Mechanix in Success.

Many of the women Liz has taught as part of the program came along to the morning tea to thank her for her work. We look forward to seeing Liz’s fantastic efforts continue through her swim school, as she focuses on providing people in the local community of Success – many of whom are also migrants – with swimming and water safety lessons as part of our Swim and Survive program.

You can find out more about our Women's Only Swim and Survive program at the link below.