At CPW's Trinidad Lake State Park, lucky guests earn special rewards for wearing life jackets
Bill VogrinSoutheast Region Public Information Officer
719-466-3927 / [email protected] At Trinidad Lake State Park, lucky guests earn special rewards for wearing life jackets
June 25, 2024
At Trinidad Lake State Park, lucky guests earn special rewards for wearing life jackets
TRINIDAD, Colo. – At Trinidad Lake State Park, wearing a life jacket can do more than keep you afloat, and alive, if you find yourself unexpectedly in the water.
Wearing your life jacket might win you a gift such as an insulated lunch bag, a sunshade for your vehicle or a fishing towel.
Kids can even win a trip to a local ice cream shop.
The gifts are being given out at random by Colorado Parks and Wildlife Rangers when they spot guests complying with the agency’s plea to wear life jackets.
For the past couple summers, CPW has partnered with the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, which owns the lake, to give incentives to guests to improve life jacket compliance among guests. They called it their “You Got Caught” campaign, said CPW’s Floyd Duran, park manager at Trinidad Lake.
“If we ‘catch’ people wearing a life jacket, we give them a little ‘thank you’ in the form of a small gift provided by the Corps,” Duran said.
This year, the CPW Ranger Aaron Roach expanded the program by partnering with Trinidad area ice cream shops for sweet treats.
“This year, we have taken the program a step further to create our ‘Thank you’ incentive program,” Duran said. “If we "catch" parents and their kids wearing their life jackets, we are giving the parents a gift, like a sun shade or lunch bags.
“And their kids get a voucher for free ice cream from one of the participating shops.”
Five Trinidad businesses volunteered 20 vouchers each to be a part of the ”Thank You” initiative: Colie's Bakery, Lees BBQ, Tutti Scoops, Little Rox's Ice Cream Shop, and The Trinidad Creamery.
The vouchers can be redeemed for ice-cream, frozen yogurt, soft serve and baked goods.
PHOTOS:
Guests at Trinidad Lake State Park pose after being rewarded by CPW Rangers for wearing their life jackets. Photos courtesy of Colorado Parks and Wildlife
Colorado Parks and Wildlife (CPW) is an enterprise agency, relying primarily on license sales, state parks fees and registration fees to support its operations, including: 43 state parks and more than 350 wildlife areas covering approximately 900,000 acres, management of fishing and hunting, wildlife watching, camping, motorized and non-motorized trails, boating and outdoor education. CPW's work contributes approximately $6 billion in total economic impact annually throughout Colorado.