DAVIE, Fla. — On Saturday, family, friends and community members will celebrate the life of a 17-year-old who died while trying to save another’s life.
Aden Perry heard calls for help from someone who had driven into a lake in Sunrise in April 2022.
He jumped in to help, but never came back up, as both he and the driver died.
“It’s important to be proactive to save lives,” said Sara Perry, Aden’s mother. “I didn’t think I’d live a day or a week and here I am. On April 19, it’ll mark four years since that accident changed my world.”
Now, loved ones are hoping to turn their tragedy into something that could help make sure something like this doesn’t happen again.
“It wasn’t until losing my son that I realized there was currently nothing available in such an emergency,” said Perry.
Since then, Perry has put up more than 600 life rings, or life preservers, along waterways across South Florida and even up into North Carolina.
Each one has the last picture Perry would ever take of her son, and a hero’s message but she hopes they send the message of “throw, don’t go.”
“Every body of water has the potential for a water emergency and it doesn’t matter how great a swimmer you are,” she said.
Perry added that the life rings have already saved lives.
“By having these life rings, it’s almost like we’re completing the job he started that night,” she said.
Aden’s legacy also lives on through events like annual 5Ks and the Aden Perry Good Samaritan Scholarship Foundation, which helps students who are smart, driven and selfless, like Aden was.
“To date, we’ve given well over $300,000 in scholarships,” said Perry. “He wanted to be a neurosurgeon, he wanted to make a difference, he really wanted to save lives.
“I miss him terribly. The work I do now is all for him, in his honor. He would be proud of me. He was my hero.”
The latest 5K will be held on Saturday at Amerant Bank Arena in Sunrise, where Perry will give a $10,000 scholarship to a deserving student.
It’s one of the 16 scholarships she’s handing out.
All money collected from the 5K will go toward those scholarships.
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