Local News

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PRESS RELEASE: September 25, 2007

Power and Brown sponsors “Kids Don’t Float” in Napaskiak

Phillip Nicholai, Napaskiak Tribal Council Administrator (left), with daughter Sophie Nicholai (center) and friends, Anecia Evan and Hazel Pitka accept the “Kids Don’t Float” materials from attorneys Michele Power and Sean Brown. (Photo credit: Dean Swopes)

Bethel attorneys, Michele Power and Sean Brown are sponsoring a “Kids Don’t Float” site in Napaskiak. They traveled to the Y-K Delta village on Tuesday, September 25 to deliver the project materials. Phillip Nicholai, Tribal Council Administrator was on hand to accept the life jacket loan board sign and eight youth-size life jackets.

“We handle personal injury cases in our law practice,” Michele Power said, “So when we began considering a community service project, we thought it made sense to do something to help stop unnecessary accidents and deaths in our region.”

The “Kids Don’t Float” program is a grass-roots effort to reduce drowning among children and youth. Its purpose is to provide life jackets for those who forgot their child’s jacket at home or have an additional child along for the trip. The KDF program is not designed to take away the responsibility of every boater, adult or child, from supplying and wearing their own life jacket. The loan program is built on the honor system. The Seventeenth Coast Guard District and the state’s Section of Community Health and Emergency Medical Services, Injury Surveillance Prevention Unit provide sign decals and purchase the personal flotation devices when funds are available.

When they contacted the Alaska Injury Prevention program, Power and Brown learned that while many Y-K villages do have “Kids Don’t Float” sites, there is opportunity to expand. Since state funding was no longer available for this year, Power and Brown purchased the life jackets. “We selected Napaskiak as our first site since it was close by. And with the wet weather and the river running so high on our trip, we were reminded of the responsibility to wear our own life jackets,” Sean Brown said.

“This is very timely,” Nicholai responded, noting that the Alaska State Troopers have been emphasizing the requirement for everyone to wear life vests while on the water.

Power and Brown plan to sponsor three more “Kids Don’t Float” sites next spring.

The local law firm was established in 2005. Michele Power has been in practice here for over ten years, She first came to the Y-K Delta in 1979 and spent a number of years working for the Lower Kuskokwim School District prior to attending law school. She graduated from the University of Idaho College of Law. Sean Brown is a graduate of The John Marshall Law School in Chicago, Illinois. After working in Chicago, he moved to Bethel in 2001.