By Tana Kelley, Northwest Region

For Michael Dilley, the Red Cross story began with a swimming lesson.

After ninth grade, he signed up for a Water Safety Aide and Junior Lifesaving class at Echo Lake in Shoreline, Washington state. It was a small decision with a long reach.

“That was the seed that got planted,” Dilley said.

At that class, he met Norm Bottenberg, who was then running the Red Cross in Seattle and King County. Dilley became a Water Safety Aide and helped teach swimming lessons. A few years after high school, he took an Advanced Lifesaving class and became a Lifeguard at Dockton Park on Vashon Island.

From the Pool to the Army

The next year, Dilley joined the Army and was sent to Fort Hood, Texas. In March 1967, while serving as a mortarman, he heard that Special Services was looking for people with lifesaving or swimming experience. The Fort had five outdoor swimming pools and a beach.

He raised his hand.

Dilley renewed his Advanced Lifesaving Certification, became a Red Cross Water Safety Instructor and spent the season from April through October teaching swimming lessons.

“So that was a combination of starting both my Red Cross affiliation plus my time in the military,” he said.

Back to the Water

When he left the Army in 1968, Dilley returned to Seattle and went right back to the water. His father worked for the Boy Scouts as a Scout Executive, and Mike Dilley became Assistant Waterfront Director at Camp Brinkley (now called Camp Edward), teaching swimming, lifesaving, canoeing and kayaking.

“I’ve always done multiple aquatic kinds of things,” he said.

Dilley went on to teach at the Bellevue YMCA and to teach swimming to elementary students in Federal Way. Then King County Parks came looking for people to run swimming pools. The County was in the middle of a building boom that would bring about 15 new pools to the region, and Dilley spent roughly seven years with them as a Pool Manager.

Around 1972 or 1973, Bottenberg organized an Aquatic Camp at the University of Washington. There, Dilley earned Instructor certifications in sailing, canoeing, rowing and powerboating. For about 20 years, he taught Sailing Instructor courses for Scout camps across the region.

Counting the Ripples

Dilley later spent about seven years with the Metropolitan Park District of Tacoma, running pool operations and teaching First Aid classes across the District, including at Northwest Trek.

While there, he was asked to present a session about how Aquatics impacts the community. He wasn’t sure how to measure it until he started counting his own classes. The numbers multiplied quickly.

If he trained 10 instructors, and each one of them taught six classes a year, the reach grew fast.

“The next year, we’ve collectively done 66 classes,” he explained. “And the following year, we’re almost up to 600 classes.”

“You seem to be doing small, little things,” he said, “but when you add it all up, the impact ends up being a big, huge thing.”

A Red Cross Career, Then Volunteer Service

From 2005 to 2012, Mike Dilley worked full time for the Seattle Red Cross, coordinating Aquatics classes and supporting Authorized Providers in King County. He eventually became the Washington and Oregon Red Cross Aquatics Specialist before retiring in 2012.

But he was far from finished.

In 2012, Dilley shifted into Red Cross volunteering, first with Service to the Armed Forces and then with Disaster Cycle Services. Working from the Naval Base in Oak Harbor, WA, he delivers Pre-Deployment briefings and supports Red Cross meetings with Service members. He has also done Casework and served on a Disaster Action Team.

He is still a First Aid and CPR Instructor. “I started off in Aquatics,” he said, “and now I’m just doing Basic First Aid.”

Fifty-Nine Years and Counting

This is Mike Dilley’s 59th year with the Red Cross. The lesson he carries from his earliest days is simple: “You support down and you challenge up.”

He may never hear from the students who went on to save a life. That doesn’t worry him.

“I know statistically, at some point, it’s out there,” he said. “Somewhere down the line, I know I’ve helped.”

From a lake in Edmonds to a Base in Oak Harbor, Mike Dilley’s path shows how one lesson can ripple outward -- one class and one student at a time.