The children's life jacket giveaway kicks off at 1 p.m. on Wednesday with the annual Pro-Am Celebrity Sailing Race featuring KING TV's Jeff Renner, Seattle Times sports reporters Greg Bishop and John Boyle along with Olympic synchronized swimming gold and silver medalist Tracie Ruiz-Conforto, Olympic rowing silver medalist John Stillings, Olympic canoeist Jordan Malloch, University of Washington basketball legend Chester Dorsey, University of Washington rowing coach and former Olympic coach Bob Ernst and Olympic sculling coach Emil Kossev.

The local celebrities will be available to sign autographs while joining Children's Hospital and Regional Medical Center's Dr. Linda Quan, a national drowning expert, in fitting the first kids attending the show with life jackets.

Children and their parents who visit the Children's Water Safety booth at the show can learn basic water safety skills from knowledgeable boaters.  Among the safety topics are small boat entry and exit skills through a short safety exercise, when and how to wear your life jacket, and what do in an emergency.  Families can also take home Boating Safety Side Kicks, a fun water-safety informational coloring book by the National Safe Boating Council, and a Stay on top of It water-safety booklet from Children's Hospital and Regional Medical Center along with a small box of crayons.

According to research conducted in 2004 for the National SAFE KIDS campaign and Johnson and Johnson, 50 percent of kids aged 8 to 12 admit they never wear a life jacket when riding on a personal watercraft, 37 percent admit they don't wear a lifejacket when participating in water sports and 16 percent admit they don't wear a life jacket when on a boat. 

Tickets to this event cost $10 for Adults, $5 for Children and $18 for a Three-Day Pass.  More information can be found at http://www.boatsafloatshow.com/.