Siblings’ drowning deaths in Dryden, Ont., immediate calls for college swimming classes

The household of two siblings who drowned in Dryden, Ont., on the finish of July is advocating for water security and swimming classes for all school-aged kids.

On July 31, 15-year-old Kayden Grant and his 12-year-old sister, Joyclyn Grant, drowned within the Wabigoon River within the northwestern Ontario metropolis.

The household says Joyclyn fell into the river and did not know find out how to swim. Her brother went in to attempt to save her, however wasn’t a robust sufficient swimmer. 

“I absolutely felt like I was drowning, to be perfectly honest. I couldn’t breathe. I felt underwater, overwhelmed, like I just couldn’t get enough air,” mentioned their grandmother, Elva Reid, an Anishinaabe lady from Treaty 3 territory.

Reid’s 10-year-old niece was additionally there and used Facebook messenger to contact her mom for assist. She tried holding out a department for Kayden and Joyclyn to seize, however the present was too robust.

“She did everything she [could]. More than a 10-year-old could ever be expected to do,” mentioned Reid.

The neighborhood has rallied across the household, with the Dryden Community Funeral Home overlaying the celebration of life prices and a crowdfunding effort that is raised greater than $4,600 to this point.

Now, the household is seeking to launch a basis, to be known as Water Wings, in Kayden and Joyclyn’s reminiscence.

Reid mentioned she desires “to raise the funds so that all school-aged children have enough water safety knowledge by the age of 10 that should anything happen, they know what to do.”

The household can also be petitioning Premier Doug Ford to place swimming classes again into the elementary faculty curriculum.

CBC News has reached out to the Ministry of Education for remark and is awaiting a response.

‘Water is actual and unforgiving’

Joyclyn and Kayden solely just lately moved to the area and had been unfamiliar with the world. But Reid, as an Anishinaabe individual and former synchronized swimmer, says she grew up across the water.

While kids in southern Ontario have simpler entry to swimming pools, she says these within the northwest have to be taught in regards to the waters that encompass them.

“You’ve got to understand the differences between a body of water like a lake and a river,” Reid mentioned. “Water is real and unforgiving.”

“How many other teenage children between the ages of 12 and 18 cannot swim and do not understand the actual dangers?” 

Daniel Dubois-Blair, a father of three and proprietor of Turbo’s Towing and Recovery in Dryden, says when he discovered the information of the youngsters’s deaths, “it broke my heart.”

Since listening to in regards to the household’s plans to start out a basis, he is supplied to assist pay for swimming classes for these locally who can’t afford them. 

“It’s not something that everybody’s got an opportunity for,” Dubois-Blair mentioned.

“I think it’s something that everybody deserves.”

Fewer than 7,400 folks dwell in Dryden. The metropolis’s mayor, Jack Harrison, earlier expressed his condolences to the Grant household and thanked police, hearth, and different emergency personnel concerned within the response. 

“Words are never enough in moments like these, but please know that the hearts of every resident in our community are with you. We mourn together, and we stand beside you during this unimaginable time,” Harrison mentioned.

The household is grateful for the neighborhood’s outpouring of help, mentioned Reid.

Joyclyn is described on the crowdfunding pages as “the type of girl that could walk into a room and light it up with her smile.”

“She was always silly, loved to joke and laugh, and was obsessed with Stitch. Her favourite saying was, ‘Ohana means family, and family never gets left behind.’ Our world seems a little darker without her bright light,” it says.

As for Kayden, he was extra of an introvert, “but when he would create friendships, they were bonds that were unbreakable.’

“He liked studying about science, dinosaurs, sharks, fossils, and liked his video video games. But most of all, he liked his little sister.”

The Water Wings Foundation can be reached at waterwingsfoundation1013@gmail.com.