Free life jackets will be available at self-serve stations at both Allan Yorke Park on Lake Tapps in Bonney Lake and at Spanaway Lake Park in Spanaway beginning today.

A $5,000 grant from Safe Kids Pierce County Coalition to both the East Pierce and Central Pierce fire districts funded the program, said Dina Sutherland, public education specialist with East Pierce Fire and Rescue.

The money built the self-serve stations: simple wooden cabinets to hold the life jackets. Anyone can take a vest as long as they return it.

Ribbon-cutting ceremonies will be held at each station today: 11 a.m. at Spanaway Lake and 3 p.m. at Allan Yorke Park.

Sutherland said East Pierce has had a life-jacket loaner program on Lake Tapps for years, but this is the first self-serve effort.

A life jacket program is new for Central Pierce, according to Stephanie Glass, an education specialist with the fire district.

She said the public safety agency was looking for a way to improve safety at Spanaway Lake.

“Every year we have a drowning or near drowning at the lake,” she said.

A couple of weeks ago a firefighter who lives on the lake rescued two adults not wearing life jackets who fell into the lake when their boat capsized.

The life jacket station, which was built by a shop class at Spanaway Lake High School with lumber donated by Home Depot, will have 25 jackets in five sizes, Glass said.

The response to the self-serve approach elsewhere in the state has varied, Sutherland said, with some loaner programs losing their entire inventory and others ending up with more life jackets than they started with.

There will be 15 to 20 life jackets, in infant through adult sizes, at Allan Yorke Park for starters.

“We want all park users to wear a life jacket,” Sutherland said. “The focus is for children under 5 and older adults. We also want to target the teenage population. They don’t think it’s cool to wear life jackets.

“Our waters are so cold in Western Washington. They are glacier fed. Our bodies are unable to react to that.”

East Pierce also makes free loaner life jackets available at North Tapps Park through the concession stand. A driver’s license is needed there to get one.

Life jackets also are available on loan from the department’s main fire station, 18421 Old Buckley Highway, in Bonney Lake.

East Pierce also sells life jackets at its headquarters for a discounted $14 each.

The Center for Childhood Safety at Mary Bridge Children’s Hospital in Tacoma also loans and sells life jackets year-round. For more information, call 253-403-1234.

“Our goal is for everyone to have a safe summer on Lake Tapps,” Sutherland said.

Mike Archbold: 253-597-8692