MARGATE, FLA. (WSVN) - A South Florida woman is on a mission to save others, more than a year after her teenage son drowned trying to save a driver who crashed into a lake.
Speaking with 7News on Thursday morning, Margate resident Sarah Perry said she is striving to keep the memories of her son alive.
“I made a promise to my son that I would never let him be forgotten,” she said.
Aden Perry made the noble sacrifice on April 20, 2022, when he drowned trying to rescue a teenage driver along the 1200 block of Silver Palm Boulevard.
“Behind this incredible young man stands a mother who has devoted her life to preventing the tragic loss of innocent lives,” said Margate Mayor Anthony N. Caggiano
The young good Samaritan lived life to the fullest. A winner of several academic achievements, the 17-year-old’s bright future came to an end after doing the right thing
“He would help tutor kids at school. He was helping other people, helped my niece with her school, anybody he could,” said Sarah. “It’s who he was.”
Sarah is now committed to making sure incidents like these don;t happen. With help from the community, life-preserving rings will be installed in a number of sites around the city.
Sarah said she hopes she is able to set an example that others will follow.
“By cities like the city of Margate, bringing them to their city and putting them by their waterways and being proactive, they’re taking a big step to preventing losing another life,” she said.
It’s a gesture that she believes her son would be proud of.
“My son would be happy. He was my little boy. He went out of this way to help other people,” she said. “He was a brilliant student, but he also had a heart to help other people, and I think by him seeing what I;m doing, I think he’d be proud, and he’d be happy that I’m doing this in this name, because he wouldn’t want anybody else to have to suffer his own fate.”
Dozens more life rings are expected in the future because of Aden’s sacrifice.
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