ANN ARBOR, Mich. — May is National Water Safety Month, and we’ve been ON YOUR SIDE with what you need to know before heading out this summer.
Our coverage continues as a Michigan mother shares the story of her teenage son who had hoped to have a fun day on the water but never made it home. Kimberly Jones says water safety means so much more than learning how to swim.
“He was just the most loving kid you would ever meet,” said Jones.
She described her son, Alex Walker, as an athletic 10th grader who was 6’3 and involved in football, basketball and, more recently, track.
“He had a joy of life that I don’t think I’ve ever seen, ever,” she said. “He has an older sister, my daughter, but he was the big brother of the whole family. So, he always looked out for everyone younger than him. He looked out for his two younger brothers and even in scouting, that was all he ever did. He looked after every younger scout.”
May 11, 2022 was one of those sooner-than-expected, hot, summer-like days of spring.
Jones says Alex and some friends, “were hanging out and having fun and laughing and joking and they were all like, ‘Oh, we should go just take a dive in the river,’ and Alex was like, ‘Yeah, let’s do it,” but she believes her son, a fully-trained swimmer, was caught off guard.
“He knew all the rules but you never know what lies beneath that surface,” said Jones.
Also, the hot conditions that day may have been deceiving.
“In that particular area, the water was a little higher than normal, but also even though it was 80 degrees outside, the water temperature was 40 and there’s lots of debris in there. There’s lots of rocks,” said Jones.
It was Alex’s first time, his mom says, attempting the jump off the bridge and makeshift hangout in Ann Arbor into the Huron River.
It’s something many people do, according to Jones.
“Children, kids, adults – lots of people do it in that area, specifically off of that bridge all the time for years, for decades, for generations," she said. "Kind of like a rite of passage tradition, and Alex, although he had plenty of training, he got caught when he went under.”
She explained how her son’s body was pulled from the water by a passing kayaker.
According to the CDC, every day there are an average of 11 drowning deaths across the country. An issue affecting people of color at an even higher rate.
Keyuana Rosemond is the president of the Eta Pi Sigma Alumnae Chapter of the historically Black sorority, Sigma Gamma Rho.
“We hear time and time again, when it gets warm, of young people drowning because they don’t know how to swim or they overestimate their ability in large bodies of water and so we wanted to be able to draw awareness to that and then be able to provide some education, as well,” Rosemond said.
That’s happening at the annual Swim 1922 event offering water safety sessions, fitness classes and a mobile vaccine unit. That’s coming up June 11. It’s free to attend, but organizers are asking that you register in advance.
The sorority is partnering with Grand Rapids Parks & Recreation.
“The families and kids that come on June 11 at MLK Park, they’re all going to get a free swim lesson," said recreation supervisor John Judnich. "That means six sessions they get to come to. This is a huge priority for us as a city. We want to teach as a many kids to swim as possible.”
Jones wants those planning to get out on the water this summer to take those swimming lessons even further.
“Be aware of what you’re doing. If there are signs posted that say ‘no diving,’ then don’t dive. Lots of people have done it, but again, you don’t know how you are going to react. You don’t know what can happen to you. So, there’s always a high risk when diving off of any surface that is not designed for that.”
Officials say it is not safe to jump into bodies of water from bridges like the one involved in this incident.
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