Dozens of water safety stations installed at beach accesses in Oak Island

OAK ISLAND, NC (WWAY) — The Town of Oak Island is installing “Water Safety Stations” at each of its public beach access locations, in an effort to prevent drowning through education and awareness.

The town began installing the stations on Tuesday, and expects them to be in place at all of its beach access points in time for what is expected to a be busy Labor Day weekend.

There will be 65 “Water Safety Stations” placed at each public beach access location in Oak Island with a flotation device, steps on how to safely use it, and information on water conditions.

The town partnered with the Jack Helbig Memorial Foundation for the project.

“Oak Island is very unique, it is one of the longest beach strands of any coastal town in North Carolina, and at 65 public beach access locations, we have more access than any other coastal town in the Carolinas. So by using the partnership, which we are grateful for with the Helbig Foundation, and putting these water safety stations out there, we provide the public with the tools and the information and the knowledge to affect their own level of personal safety,” said Mike Emory, Oak Island communications manager.

Kelly Helbig founded the nonprofit in memory of her 4-year-old son Jack, who drowned in a lake.

She says the new Water Safety Stations will help her organization and Oak Island Promote water safety education and drowning prevention.

“We all need to be safer around water, at every age, and we’ve had several drownings, in Brunswick county we’ve had a rough year, beginning of this season with 4 fatalities, and so this is one way that we can help increase ocean safety,” said Kelly Helbig, Jack Helbig Memorial Foundation founder.

Helbig said they hope to have more of the Water Safety Stations place on beaches across the county.

“We put similar floatation devices at Caswell Beach in the spring, and just earlier this month they were used to save the lives of two girls. So, we know that these work and there is a need for them in and they will reduce fatalities in Brunswick County Beaches,” said Helbig.

The Town of Oak Island  anticipates each water safety station will need to be replaced every two years for maintenance.