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Groups to receive Lions Club Humanitarian Award

In the 1990s, hearing a siren around Troutdale in late afternoon on a summer weekend usually meant one thing: Another swimmer drowned in the Sandy River.

“Between 4 and 8 o’clock on hot summer days were pretty much drowning hours,” said Mayor Paul Thalhofer. “Someone had been on the beach too long. They might’ve had too much to drink. They tried to make that one last swim across the river and didn’t make it.”

One of those afternoons, Thalhofer and City Councilor Jim Kight stood on the Troutdale Bridge as the body of a dark-haired man in a white T-shirt floated beneath them.

“That was the beginning of the end of people swimming in that area without some rescue service,” Kight said.

Since American Medical Response (AMR) launched an innovative River Rescue Program in 1999, the average rate of river drownings at Glenn Otto Park dropped from nearly two per year to zero.

AMR will celebrate the program’s success as it kicks off its 10th season this Memorial Day weekend. It will hold a special training demonstration at Glenn Otto Community Park at 10:30 a.m. Tuesday, May 27. River Rescue team members, who serve as lifeguards at both Glenn Otto and High Rocks Park in Gladstone, will demonstrate specialized river rescue techniques. The public is invited to observe the demonstrations, said Randy Lauer, general manager of AMR Oregon.

As well as celebrating its own success, other entities are recognizing the program’s life-saving and rescue achievements. The Troutdale City Council saluted the group’s success at its Tuesday, May 13, meeting. The Troutdale Lions Club will honor AMR and the Troutdale Boosters with its Humanitarian Award in a July 19 ceremony.

The boosters club was formed to help launch the program. Local businessman Junki Yoshida spearheaded the group, which managed to raise $30,000 for rescue equipment for the program’s launch in June 1999.

Thalhofer, a Lions Club member, said the two groups couldn’t be more deserving of the Sam Cox Humanitarian Award, named for the late Troutdale mayor who served from 1983 to 1992.

“I think having saved, arguably, 20 lives over 10 years, this is one of the greatest humanitarian projects around here – and the state,” Thalhofer said. “It’s a one-of-a-kind lifeguard program, with the swift water rescue.”

Indeed, it’s the nature of the Sandy River – a narrow but swift and fluctuating stream fed by glacial runoff from Mount Hood – that makes the rescue program special.

“It’s unusual because most of the water rescue lifeguard programs are on lakes or ocean beaches,” Lauer said. “The Sandy has that swift water element: shifting bottom contours and changing hazards. An ocean beach is pretty much the same day to day. This requires quite a bit more preparation.”

Given the growing crowds at Glenn Otto, Lauer is particularly pleased by the lack of drownings and successful rescues. Swimmer counts swelled from 4,000 in 1999 to more than 30,000 in 2007, he noted.

“It’s really gratifying that even with a markedly increased number of people, there’s still been no drownings,” he said, adding that the number of rescues and assists has increased each year.

Lauer credits the program’s prevention efforts – communicating with beachgoers, providing life jackets, monitoring risky behavior – with its continued success.

“The effectiveness of the program is due at least 80 percent to prevention,” he said. “It requires a high level of vigilance.”

By Shannon Wells

The Gresham Outlook, May 23, 2008

Reporter Shannon O. Wells can be reached at This e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it or by calling 503-492-5118.