A Life on the River

              " From the time of a baby's first bath, care should be taken
never to frighten a child of water. Water should not be al­lowed
to pour over the child's face when the hair is washed
in a way that causes fear of suffocation. Children should
never be forced into the water. All horseplay in water should
be avoided lest it discourage the timid from becoming a
swimmer. Such undisciplined behavior in water frequently re­sults
in drownings."
I took this opportunity to ask why it is that so many " ex­pert"
swimmers are listed as casualties each season. June
Powell's reply should sound a warning to all amphibians:
" People who may have been expert swimmers last season
or even last month are usually far from it at the time of
their demise. Swimmers keep forgetting that no exercise will
keep them in top condition for the water save that of swim­ming.
Fitness falls off so rapidly, the swimmer can scarcely
imagine how quickly exhaustion can overtake one even after
a short absence from the water. Over- confidence causes more
drownings than anything else."
If the W. I. at Bowden has started something new in water
safety classes, it will not be for the first time this branch has
gone trail- blazing. Gladys Schneider, whom the members
credit with most of the. drive for the swimming classes, has
been busy for months writing a book of past achievements
of this group which started in 1917. Mary Riley, the beloved
first president, saw to it that the district had one of the first
child clinics in the country.
Sixteen miles from town, the W. I. served a vital need for
social outlet in those difficult days. Women eagerly walked
ten or even fifteen miles to meetings! Their good works in­cluded
nursing care in which a district travelling chest was
set up for use by anyone in need of it.
No Wasted Time
This active group has carried on an activity once so popu­lar
with western rural schools, but long since discontinued
even before centralization — the school fair. There are two
rural schools still operating in this area.
And somehow they also managed to send books and
magazine subscriptions to the children in the Innisfail Hos­pital,
letters and cards to the sick, donations to the Cancer
Society, Salvation Army, and the Wood's Home for Children
in Calgary, and to an orphanage in Korea.
While much of the urgent need for the local W. I. has
vanished, this group still plays an important role in com­munity
life. Not long ago, it was decided to send a member
to a leadership course in Banff, and it was decided Gladys
Schneider was the one to go. Gladys, who got her high school
education by correspondence while caring for her invalid
mother, was reluctant to go, but the members overcame all
obstacles and packed her off to Banff.
Today, if Gladys Schneider sometimes prods the group
' ward goals like the swimming class, the older members
nile and nod knowingly to each other. They accept her
outhful enthusiasm with goodwill.
It was co- operation like that given by the Women's Insti-utes
which eventually hung a lifeline across the Little Red.
i is to be hoped more such lifelines will be unfurled across
he countryside. In water safety there is much work to be
' one, and few organizations are more able to do it than the
' omen's Institute.