Kent Broown and Sep Hendrickson took a bite at the opportunity to be part of a national effort to encourage boaters to wear a life jacket. The summer campaign, dubbed “Wear It California!” encourages boaters to wear a life jacket by distributing life jackets on the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta to those that pledge to wear one while boating.

It is the first campaign ever in the United States to have positive results. Wear it rates at the inception of the campaign were at six percent.  Preliminary results from a 2009 DBW wear it rate study show a 22 percent wear rate!! The success of this program is attributed to dedicated DBW staff and partnerships such as with Kent Brown and Sep Hendrickson.

Both were able to lure anglers to wear their life jackets through their radio shows, Web sites, and angling events, and by wearing a life jacket at all times while boating.

Specifically, they

• Provided airtime on their radio shows for guest speakers to further help spread the message of wearing a life jacket.
• Branded their boats and truck with the Wear It California logo, further promoting the campaign where ever they traveled to.
• And invited radio listeners to their events.