Cade Redmond, with life ring, and (left to right) Sgt. Matthew Figaro, Mayor Woody Washam and Officer George Brinzey

May 15. Cade Redmond, the 14-year-old son of Elise and Douglas Redmond, received the Commissioner’s Award from the NC Department of Insurance during the Love Where You Lake event Saturday at Blythe Landing.

Cade is the driving force behind the Devoted Float campaign to place life rings on public docks in Lake Norman. He was there on Brigadoon last October when a construction worker drowned while cooling off in the lake after work.

Background

The victim, a father of two, was just 10 feet from a dock but no one nearby was able to reach him. It was a tragedy all too common.

According to the Centers for Disease Control, there are 4,000 fatal drownings per year, an average of 11 deaths per day.

For Cade, the incident wasn’t just a statistic, it was a cause.

Coast Guard C-130 circled the event at Blythe Landing

Quotable

“It was my reaction to hearing people say after the drowning if they’d had something to throw, they probably could have saved him. I took that to heart and thought I should make something out of it,” he said.

He launched the Devoted Float life ring campaign in response. Now state legislators will consider a law that would make life rings available and mandatory on public docks and ramps.

The Cornelius Police Lake Patrol participated in the event as well as the Lake Norman Marine Commission, the Sea Tow Foundation and the US Coast Guard which sent a C-130 for a flyover.

The community event was organized by Lake Norman Leadership Class 26, sponsored by the Lake Norman Chamber of Commerce.