Waves of nostalgia for Canadians taught to swim by Red Cross as program winds down …

Those like Gonek who took the program in the 1980s and 1990s, earned water level safety badges as they completed each lesson stage. The eight tokens were small, square patches featuring the outline of a swimmer on coloured waves with the Red Cross symbol etched on the top left.

“My parents didn’t trust the people who taught lessons out on the lake, so we used to drive every weekend into Edmonton,” she said.

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