FORT LAUDERDALE, FLA. (WSVN) - A touching tribute was created underwater to honor a South Florida student killed in a boating crash.
Seventeen-year-old John Baker lost his life when the 13-foot Boston Whaler boat he and five others were aboard struck a bridge in August 2015.
Baker was just seven days away from starting his senior year at St. Thomas Aquinas High in Fort Lauderdale. His classmates were left devastated.
“He’s the type of kid that you just want to be around,” said the victim’s best friend, Brandan Kelly. “It’s just been really hard to lose him.”
On Tuesday, Baker’s family headed to the same waters where he learned to fish and dive in to create a special memorial.
They boarded a boat in Dania Beach and dropped an artificial reef underwater in his honor.
One of the concrete blocks was fitted with Baker’s name on a plaque.
“By deploying concrete pieces, as we have, it creates a new habitat for fish,” said Brock Pecknold with the Coast Conservation Association.
For Baker’s family and friends, it’s how they want to remember the boy who grew up in the waters.
“I know he’s watching over us,” said his grandmother, Jeanne Evans. “He’s probably down there on that other reef already.”
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