Mentor Fire Lieutenant Rocks the Boat for Safety's Sake

Mentor Fire Lt. Don Zimmerman works at the Mentor Safety Village, where he teaches kids about fire, motor vehicle and water safety.

After one session in 2009, a parent came up to him and said, "Your water safety sucks."

Zimmerman admits the water safety portion of his presentation may have been lackluster.

"All we did essentially is hold up a life jacket and tell them, 'hey, wear this,'" he said.

So he asked the father, "You got any ideas?"

"Nope."

Nevertheless, that father gave Zimmerman the impetus that eventually became Arko's Ark, the interactive water-safety boat/movie theater on wheels.

Zimmerman wanted to have something that would get the kids involved, so he came up with the idea of having an interactive movie. The children would watch as firefighters next to them helped rescue boaters who had toppled into Lake Erie.

But the kids wouldn't watch the film on a TV in a classroom. No, they'd watch as it was projected against the inside hull of a boat. That way they could feel as if they were on the rescue boat.

Zimmerman pitched his idea to Cecilia Duer, of Mentor, who is the executive director of the National Water Safety Congress. She liked the idea and approved an $850 grant to make it happen.

Zimmerman spent the money as judiciously he could. A videographer offered to film and edit the 13-minute movie for $150. A firefighter's son, Kevin Arko, donated an old boat that was refitted as a movie theater.

In 2010, Arko's Ark premiered at Mentor Safety Village. Someone from the Ohio Division of Watercraft saw it and wanted Zimmerman to take the show on the road.

"You've got to make this portable," she said, according to Zimmerman. "Nobody's doing this."

However, making the ark portable wasn't just a matter of putting wheels on the boat. He needed to outfit it with a generator, air conditioning and other improvements if he was going to take Arko's Ark around the state, so the Ohio Division of Watercraft gave him a $28,000 grant.

Zimmerman and the Ohio Division of Watercraft showed off the upgraded Arko's Ark at a national water-safety show in Georgia last month. And the new and improved Ark is already booked for 12 safety events this summer.

Pam Dillon, chief of the Ohio Division of Watercraft, even came to the Mentor City Council Tuesday to congratulate and thank Zimmerman for the work he's done.

"The grant we gave has already been returned many times over in boating safety," she said.

Zimmerman's not finished improving the ark. He still wants to put hydraulics on its trailer so the boat can rock along with the film.

However, he notes that Arko's Ark is certainly a step up from his old water safety presentation.