Tony Head from LIWA Aquatics, Julius Bulanadi and Lari McDonald from Seadragonz, Trent Hotchkin from Royal Life Saving WA, Kara Luckens, , Nicole Jones and Bill McDonald from Seadragonz, Amy Vearing from Royal Life Saving WA.
Seadragonz Swim School wins national Royal Life Saving award
Forrestdale swim school Seadragonz, a Royal Life Saving endorsed swim school, was recently named the recipient of the Royal Life Saving Society - Australia ‘Excellence in Aquatic Safety - Induction and Professional Development’ Award.
Seadragonz, who celebrated their 10th anniversary in 2017, won the award as part of the inaugural National Aquatic Industry Safety Awards, for their initiative in providing a wide range of professional development opportunities for their staff to expand their skill set.
The swim school was established by Lari and Bill McDonald in 2007, after they recognised a real need for an alternative approach to swimming lessons in their local area. Lari says “I heard far too often of parents dealing with classes where the water was too cold, there were too many children competing for the teacher’s attention and children simply didn’t enjoy the experience of learning to swim.”
Seadragonz was successful from the very start, breaking even as a business after just 3 ½ months which is almost unheard of. “I think it was successful because of good planning, knowing what we wanted, the outcomes we needed and how to get to that. The response from the local community has been amazing too, and the City of Armadale rolled out the red carpet and has been the most supportive council, which is pretty amazing.”
Over the past 10 years Lari has been very proactive in not only developing a great program for the children and parents taking part in lessons, but also a proactive approach to up-skilling facility staff. One of their initiatives is to run an annual crisis media management course to equip all staff to feel comfortable in their role around the media should an emergency occur.
Royal Life Saving WA’s Trent Hotchkin and Amy Vearing, who manage our Endorsed Swim School program, recently visited Seadragonz with LIWA Aquatics Executive Officer Tony Head to present Lari, Bill and their staff with their award. It was a fantastic opportunity to acknowledge the amazing work the Seadragonz team do in providing accessible, child-friendly swimming and water safety education in their local community.
Royal Life Saving WA has 135 Endorsed Swim Schools across the state teaching our Infant Aquatics, Swim and Survive and Bronze Rescue programs which are supported by Principal Community Partner BHP Billiton.
