We often hear about the need to wear a lifejacket out on the water. But we don't always listen. One man hopes everyone gets the message when you hear what happened to his brother.
Today would have been Tyrone Fabroa's 36th birthday.
At Kirkland's Marina Park this afternoon are all the things Tyrone loved. Good family, good food, good times. A warm summer day on the water...just like that day one year ago.
The waters were choppy that day for some reason, just super choppy, recalls Kevin Sayson, Fabroa's brother.
The two brothers were paddle boating on Lake Washington when Tyrone fell off his board and into trouble.
I look back again and I hear a cry for help, says Sayson.
Both men were wearing lifejackets. Tyrone just couldn't pull the string to make it inflate. He later died at the hospital.
Sayson is determined to honor his brother and raise awareness-- hoping his loss can save another's life.
I can either sit on my butt and be depressed about it or I can do something about it.
The timing of today's event haunts him-- with news of more drowning and near drownings over the weekend.
We do get a hot weekend and people take chances and it's typically 15 years old and over in those open bodies of water where we really need to do more work, he said.
For Sayson, it is work that has become a labor of love.
Nobody wants to wear a life jacket when you're swimming but I mean it's right there in the name. It's life.
Drowning experts say you should always have a US Coast Guard approved life jacket, as opposed to a life vest, which they say doesn't offer the same protection.
