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Life jacket station one year after tragedy occurs |
KentuckyGDELTGDELT event0% biasedSat, Jun 6, 2026, 12:00 AM
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Life jacket station one year after tragedy occurs |.Whitley County officials hosted a dedication ceremony for a new life jacket station on May 29 at the Ballard Ford Memorial River Access.The Life Jacket Loaner Station is a public outreach program of the Kentucky Department of Fish and Wildlife Resources.The station at Ballard Ford Memorial River Access marks the 21st station in Kentucky since the launch of the program in 2021.Whitley County Judge-Executive Pat White began the dedication by thanking Marcus Bowling, Kentucky Fish and Wildlife boating education coordinator and creator of the Life Jacket Loaner Station; Jerry Rains, Whitley County emergency management director; and the Whitley County school system, whose high school carpentry class constructed the station.“We hope this helps improve the safety of the river access here at Ballard Ford,” White said.The Life Jacket Loaner Station holds 10 life jackets in infant, child, youth, adult and extra large sizes.It provides English instructions on how to properly wear and use the life jacket as well as a QR code to a Spanish translation of the instructions.Bowling said the program began as a response to inexperienced boaters taking to the water during the COVID-19 pandemic.“If somebody comes down here to go boating but doesn’t have a life jacket, they can borrow one and bring it back at the end of the day for the next person,” Bowling said.“It’s just a really, really good program.It’s great public outreach by the county, city and state altogether.” The dedication comes a little more than one year after the death of Matthew Strickland, who rescued two unattended children struggling in the water near the Ballard Ford Memorial River Access.Adam Abner, a friend of Strickland, attended the dedication.He said it meant a lot to see added safety measures that could have prevented the incident.Ballard Ford remains a popular location for people wanting to be out on the water this summer.During the dedication, canoers could be seen passing by on the water, and a bus from the Sheltowee Trace Adventure Resort arrived shortly after the crowd began to disperse.Bowling said while the station was created with canoers and kayakers specifically in mind, you must have a life jacket to swim.“If we save a life, we completed our mission,” Bowling said.