$500 – Teton Valley Aquatics
Youth Philanthropists partially funded a rescue backboard for the Teton Valley Aquatics Summer Pool Program.
In 2022, Teton Valley Aquatics expanded its Summer Pool Program to include over 400 adult activity participants. However, with this increase of adults, particularly elderly participants, the risk of removing an unconscious adult from the pool also increased. If an adult medical emergency occurs, the need for a rescue backboard as an effective way to remove an unconscious adult from the pool becomes an essential piece of safety equipment.
Compared to the youth population that served in 2022, the elderly population has a much higher risk of heart failure, stroke, or other incapacitating emergencies. Teton Valley Aquatics realized, due to the nature of its above-ground pool, it had limited capabilities of safely removing an unconscious adult from the pool. To be able to perform CPR or other life-saving first aid, a person has to be on a flat level surface, out of the water. A rescue backboard would allow the pool staff to safely extract an unconscious adult from the pool in order to perform life-saving aid while waiting for first responders. Using a rescue backboard to extract an adult from the pool is a relatively simple procedure which all TVA staff could be trained to do and other adults can be talked through if needed to assist. Having this tool at the pool would also allow Teton County Fire and Rescue to begin assisting in the medical emergency as soon as they arrive without first needing to extract the adult from the pool.
Grant funds from the Youth Philanthropy program will be used to purchase a rescue backboard – a piece of emergency equipment that Teton Valley Aquatics hopes it will never have to use except as a training tool and to provide peace of mind to pool staff and first responders. If a medical emergency does occur at the pool, the rescue backboard will become a critical piece of emergency equipment, allowing staff to assist in the medical response.
With this improvement, Teton Valley Aquatics will move further towards providing the safest, most enjoyable, and accessible pool in Teton Valley until a full aquatics and recreation facility can be completed. Youth Philanthropists appreciated that this essential piece of emergency equipment would increase the pool staff’s ability to respond to a medical emergency and meet the needs of the populations that the pool serves.
