SOUTH HAVEN, Mich. — Nearly two years ago, Lisa MacDonald says she got a phone call that changed her life forever.
“It was absolutely the worst day of my life. I heard accident water accident, she didn't survive and I just I lost it,” said MacDonald.
While out shopping, she got a call from the father of her daughter's boyfriend. He was crying and frantic trying to explain that her daughter, Emily MacDonald and Emily's boyfriend, Kory Ernster, had drowned in Lake Michigan in South Haven.
She said it was something she never saw coming.
“She's a good swimmer, Kory was a good swimmer. I would have never thought a water accident, a drowning accident would have been what took the two of them,” said MacDonald.
After grieving the loss, she decided to throw herself into advocacy by working with the Ernsters and other activist to increase beach safety and get life guards on beaches.
And recently, she came across technology that she said could change the game.
“I'm not delusional, and I can't save the world. But if I can save a family or two or three from going through what I went through, then Emily and Cory didn't die in vain,” said MacDonald.
The families are using money from Kory’s life insurance policy to help beaches receive a robot called the EMILYS, which stands for emergency integrated lanyard system.
It doesn't replace lifeguards but does help them during a rescue.
“They send the EMILY unit to the drowning victims, and it goes out to those people so they can hang on to it's a flotation device. They cannot bring the victims in, but it gives the lifeguard more time to get to them,” said MacDonald.
The catch? These devices are run only by lifeguards and the beach in South Haven doesn't have any lifeguards.
Meaning the very place where this couple died can't receive the work their parents are putting in.
But that's not stopping these parents from not only providing this technology to other beaches, but also advocating for lifeguards to be brought to South Haven.
MacDonald said the parents are donating an EMILY to Silver Beach in St. Joseph and one to the City of New Buffalo.
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