Rosemary Daly Bench Lifeguard HQ

What can you say about someone who has influenced a beach community as much as Rosemary "Rowie" Daly has? Just ask all of the people who have ever had a conversation with her. Not only was she a person who genuinely cared about every person she spoke with, but she did it with a smile on her face. She remembered all of the things you said, and that is one of the many reasons she was special.

Back in 1988, Rosemary and her husband Tom both started the Junior Lifeguard program here in Long Beach. It was an idea that maybe people were unsure about at first, but not Rosemary and Tom. What better way to create a program that promoted ocean safety, ocean awareness, and a fun way to learn from the very people (ocean lifeguards) that young children idolized growing up on the beach. The camaraderie and feeling of family the junior lifeguards and lifeguard patrol have still exists to this day. The Junior Lifeguard program has been and still is a special program for many young children and teenagers. Most, if not all of the junior lifeguards who go through the program end up becoming lifeguards on the LB Patrol.

There is no one way you can thank someone who gave so much to a community, and is still giving back to this very day. "Live, laugh, love" or "All we have to do is decide what to do with the time that is given to us" are probably the words Rosemary would want us to live by every day, just as she did every day. She loved life, she loved the ocean, and she loved this community. The older I get, the more I realize how special this city is because of the people like "Rowie" who made it special.

This GoFundMe is being set up for a Memorial Bench on the deck of the new Lifeguard HQ (Riverside Blvd.) in her name. The remaining money from this will go directly to the Rosemary Daly Scholarship Fund.

Thank you all!

Tim Cabasino