Opioids killed the Swimming Star
Never in a million years would I have thought I would see the Red Cross Water Safety program retire. I think I had an unquestioning faith that it was untouchable. That no one would ever shelve something so amazing. This program, that impacted so many Canadians for so long, and has saved so many lives, was too important, maybe too awesome, to ever get rid of.
But times change, and organizational priorities change and the people that need our help change. And the decision was made to retire Red Cross Swim was made. I had the challenging role of telling the volunteers the news and when i found out I was assigned this task, the information and messages were still being created. I knew I should start prepping for the tough job of telling 158 volunteers that the program we all love, the one that I thought was untouchable, was going to be retired at the end of 2022.