The next time you borrow a life jacket from a BoatUS Foundation Life Jacket Loaner site, snap a photo of your child wearing it and you photo could be featured in the Foudnation's 2010 calendar. Submit your photos via Facebook or email. The best photos will be printed in a calendar which will be available later this year. Proceeds from the sale of the calendar will help keep this life-saving program and others life it afloat! Click here for more details or find a loaner site near you.

Read the new report of Foundation Findings #46 to find out what happened when we asked 18 volunteers to put out a fire with no prior instructions. Get in on the action yourself with new videos of the testing.

The BoatUS Foundation is looking for people and groups who have demonstrated exemplary environmental initiatives in the boating community. If you know someone who has made a significant positive impact on the environment or contributed toward solving an environmentally challenging aspect of boating or boat maintenance, nominate them for our Environmental Leadership Award.

The BoatUS Foundation for Boating Safety & Clean Water sponsors the Life Jacket Loaner Program for Kids which makes children’s life jackets available to boaters who are unprepared for visiting children or whose kids have outgrown their old life jackets. Over 350 locations nationwide loan kid-sized life jackets on a daily basis, free of charge.

Each year the need for life jackets outgrows the number that the BoatUS Foundation has available to loan. Our program goal is to raise $50,000 by this spring to meet this need – we’re counting on you!

For as little as $10, your tax-deductible contribution will fund the purchase of a child’s life jacket – or for $250, your gift will buy enough supplies to establish a new life jacket loaner location. We need your help to make boating safer for children.

Your contribution of any amount will make a difference to some small child. Consider making a fully tax-deductible donation today to keep our program afloat.

Photo above: courtesy HRM

Recycle your fishing line with the BoatUS Foundation! Did you know that it takes over 500 years for monofilament fishing line to decompose? Meanwhile, that discarded line can tangle itself around your boat prop or worse yet, marine life. To help keep line out of the environment, the BoatUS Foundation would like to partner with you and your local fishing or boating group to install a monofilament recycling bin at your favorite fishing spot, launch ramp or marina.

We will provide you with a FREE pre-made PVC monofilament bin and signage suitable for mounting outdoors. All we ask in return is that you monitor the bin, empty it when full, send the collected line to Berkley for recycling and let us know how much line you collected and returned. How easy is that? For more information, click here. Don’t delay we have a limited number of bins, and bin locations will be determined by geographic area and demonstrated demand for monofilament recycling.