SOUTH HAVEN, MI. — Lifeguards will return to South Haven's South Beach this Memorial Day, years after the city eliminated the lifeguard program and after a dozen drowning deaths at the beach since 2001.
The move follows years of debate and advocacy, driven in part by a mother who lost her daughter and her daughter’s boyfriend to a rip current at the beach in 2022.
WATCH: Grieving mom turns tragedy into change as lifeguards return to South Haven's South Beach
Lisa MacDonald's 19-year-old daughter Emily and Emily's 22-year-old boyfriend Kory were vacationing in South Haven on Aug. 8, 2022, when they were caught in a rip current while swimming at South Beach. Neither survived.
"That was probably the hardest phone call I ever had to take in my life," MacDonald said.
A bystander pulled Emily and Kory from the water, but it was too late for either of them.
In the months and years that followed, MacDonald made it her mission to bring lifeguards back to South Beach.
"I just feel if there had been lifeguards there that day... I guess our story would have had a different ending," MacDonald said.
MacDonald is suing the city of South Haven over the deaths of Emily and Kory. Fox 17 reached out to the city for comment, but had not heard back as of publication.
Despite the pending litigation, South Haven approved a plan to move forward with implementing a lifeguard program in November. Funding followed, and in April, the city introduced its new chief lifeguard.
Sean Russell, the former South Haven beachfront coordinator who held a similar role when lifeguards were last on the beach in 2001, said watching the program disappear was difficult.
"It was a tough, tough thing to see, because we knew that the lifeguard program was an effective program and had been in place for over 40 years, so to see it go away for the last 25 years was really tough," Russell said.
Russell said the return of lifeguards to South Beach has been a long time coming and could set an example for other communities.
"It's such an important thing for the safety chain, and we're really hoping that this becomes a gold standard for other communities on Lake Michigan and around the Great Lakes," Russell said.
As someone who once patrolled that same stretch of sand, Russell said watching the new trainees train on the same beach where he once worked brought the moment full circle.
"It was pretty impressive to see the whistles getting blown, and to see the lifeguards responding and communicating with each other [during a recent training exercise],” Russell said. “It's just really great to see that [South Haven is] trying hard to bring it back and to do it right.”
For MacDonald, seeing lifeguards return to South Beach was something she once thought might never happen.
"There's really no words I can say to describe what I'm feeling, but I'm just.. I'm over the moon that we've went on this journey to get lifeguards on South Beach, and we've made it,” MacDonald said. “Hopefully the program will grow and cover some of their other more popular beaches.”
MacDonald says Emily and Kory's deaths were not the end of their story; they were the beginning of something bigger.
"I know that [Emily] and Corey would be so happy that they didn't just become drowning statistics on a chart somewhere, that their deaths meant more than just that, that they are saving people and keeping people safe," MacDonald said.
This story was reported on-air by a journalist and has been converted to this platform with the assistance of AI. Our editorial team verifies all reporting on all platforms for fairness and accuracy.
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