Shannon Shaw never thought she’d be part of a growing group of grieving families who’ve lost a loved one by drowning. In 2015, her granddaughter, Carissa, tragically drowned at the age of nine while swimming in a river. She was not wearing a lifejacket. Despite her unimaginable grief, Shaw decided to dedicate her life to preserving Carissa’s enthusiasm for life by helping save others.
Shaw is the CEO and founder of the Love, Carissa Corporation, a non-profit committed to preventing drowning fatalities by raising awareness and providing resources like lifejackets and financial assistance for swimming lessons. According to Shaw, she doesn’t want to lecture people about water safety. Instead, she wants to provide them with resources to stay safe.
“I opened [the Love, Carissa Corporation] to honor my granddaughter,” said Shaw. “I don’t want anyone else to experience what I experienced and what my family experienced.”
In 2018, Shaw approached U.S. Army Corps of Engineers staff at Perry Lake in northeast Kansas with a proposition. She pitched a partnership between the Love, Carissa Corporation and Perry Lake to install loaner lifejacket stations at each of the lake’s boat ramps. Cody Smothers, natural resource specialist at Perry Lake, heard Shaw’s proposal and knew it was a no brainer.
According to Smothers, Perry Lake had loaner lifejackets before Shaw proposed the partnership. But, partnering with the Love, Carissa Corporation would help expand the program across the lake’s footprint.
“We have a few lifejacket loaner boards at all of our lakes in some way. For us, it was maximizing the amount of people that can have access to it,” said Smothers. “Our conversation [in 2018] could have been 10 minutes and it still would have been a ‘yes’ for us.”
Officially implemented in spring 2019, Love, Carissa lifejacket loaner stations can be found at all six of Perry Lake’s USACE-operated boat ramps and at two of the state-operated boat ramps. Each loaner board features information about water safety, and both youth and adult sized lifejackets are available to borrow for free. Primarily funded through donations, the Love, Carissa Corporation supplies the lifejackets.
The loaner stations are hard to miss, located prominently at each boat ramp. Carissa’s story is featured on each board and her handwriting depicting “Love, Carissa” is on each loaner lifejacket. Described as joyful with a big imagination, Carissa and her bright smile greet recreators at every loaner station.
“Because of the design, everybody has to walk past [the loaner boards,] so it takes two seconds to run over there, grab a lifejacket and then get out on the boat,” said Smothers.
And people have been grabbing the lifejackets.
“Since we implemented the program, we haven’t had a drowning related fatality at Perry [Lake,]” said Smothers. “[USACE] is the top provider of water-based recreation. We need to have this partnership.”
Because of the success of the partnership at Perry Lake, Shaw and Smothers are working together to expand the program to neighboring Clinton Lake, another USACE owned and operated lake in northeast Kansas. Smothers hopes to have Love, Carissa loaner stations at Clinton Lake by summer 2026. He said by expanding the program to other locations, more people will have access to safe, positive experiences at USACE lakes.
“I’m an agent of [USACE,] but I’m also a human being, so I don’t want families to lose people,” said Smothers. “I got into this job to be able to provide recreational experiences to people, so I want people to come out here, have a good time and go home safely.”
Shaw’s partnership with USACE is not only keeping Carissa’s memory alive but also saving lives. She hopes expanding the program to Clinton Lake will have the same effect on drowning fatalities seen at Perry Lake.
“Natural bodies of water are way different than a swimming pool. They’re unpredictable. [I hope people] continue to use [the lifejackets] and just kind of be aware. Our program is valuable when it’s being properly used,” said Shaw. “For me, it’s just not having another child or person lost from something that can be prevented so easily.”
For more information about the Love, Carissa Corporation and how they are helping save lives one lifejacket at a time, visit https://scooters-waters.com/about-us/.
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