The people trying to save us from ourselves had, it seemed, finally convinced us that life jackets are cool.

And not just cool enough to wear.

Cool enough to steal.

If people were taking the jackets from the Kids Don’t Float kiosk at Spanaway Lake so they could use them the next day at Alder Lake, it seemed like a triumph in disguise.

This is, however, the season plagued with drowning.

The very day we ran the story about the missing jackets, a 6-year-old swimming without a life vest went under water in Kitsap County’s Horsehoe Lake. He died later at Mary Bridge Hospital and Health Center.

In late June, a boat flipped on the Nisqually River and two boys, ages 9 and 5, died along with a 32-year-old man. No life jackets.

There will be more.

An average of 27 kids drown in Washington every year. They account for about a third of the state’s drownings. If stolen life jackets can cut those deaths, and the brain injuries from near-drownings, then let’s get more flotation devices out there to be pilfered.

Even Matt Holm, assistant chief of Central Pierce Fire and Rescue could back that.

“If we thought for a moment that people are taking them and using them, then we don’t have a problem with that,” he said.

Trouble is, Holm doesn’t think those life jackets are out saving lives.

“We think someone is just taking them maliciously,” he said.

He suspects someone wants to make a profit off of them, despite the fact that they’re marked as fire department property. They’re pricey, and cool.

“We have a special deal through Safe Kids of Pierce County,” Holm said. “I think they’re costing us $20 a pop. They are not the orange ones. These are the nice vests with the buckles.”

On June 27, the first batch of 20 went into a kiosk near the boat launch at Spanaway Lake. The plan was to have them there all summer, available for anyone to borrow. On Monday, June 30, all but two of them were gone.

That weekend, a couple stopped by the fire station with thanks, and a check to buy more life jackets.

Holm’s team bought them, marked them as part of the program and put them out. They were there, in constant use, all through the hot weekend.

“By Monday morning, all but four were gone,” Holm said. “Really, it’s only been about eight or 10 days that the life jackets were actually there.”

He’s including both sets of vests, and he’s discouraged.

“Unfortunately, everywhere else they have this program, they have not lost this quantity,” Holm said.

Safe Kids modeled the Kids Don’t Float on a program in Alaska. The idea was to get life jackets onto kids who were going swimming or for a boat ride. Alaska has 400 sites, 12 confirmed lives saved, and no reports of wholesale theft of the life jackets. The program’s worth every cent put into it, and it’s being duplicated in New Hampshire, Oklahoma, Georgia, Wisconsin, Colorado and Texas.

At Spanaway Lake, Fisher Broadcasting paid for a third set of jackets, and the Pierce County Sheriff’s Department is trying to create a better security plan.

But if the vests keep floating away, Holm may give up. What’s the point of being the supply side of an ongoing theft operation?

“I am so disappointed,” he said. “This would be the first place they have ever had to do this.

This is a prime opportunity for a small crew of volunteers to offer to take shifts at the kiosk, signing the life vests out and back in. They’d catch up on their summer reading and save the program, maybe even a life.

Interested? Break out the sunscreen and call Holm at 253-538-6400.

Kathleen Merryman: 253-597-8677

kathleen.merryman@thenewstribune.com