PORT ANGELES — A safety demonstration is planned during a benefit bake sale Monday to help keep others safe in memory of a Dry Creek student who drowned last year.
Monday’s sale will benefit the Aaron Peters Water Safety Fund, said Laura Lilly, an organizer.
The sale and Coast Guard water safety demonstration will be from 5 p.m. to 6 p.m. in the gym at Jefferson Elementary School, 218 E. 12th St.
Jefferson School was chosen by the Dry Creek Parent-Teacher Organization for the event because it is more centrally located than the Dry Creek school, Lilly said.
Peters was found dead in the Sandy River at Oxbow Regional Park near Gresham, Ore., in June 2015.
He was 13.
Peters was with a group of about 30 other young people, a Native American leadership group.
The group decided to wade across the river, which grew deeper as they ventured farther into it, and the students ended up swimming across, according to the Multnomah County Sheriff’s Office.
When they reached the other side, Peters’ companions found he was no longer with them.
They searched the area, then called 9-1-1.
Rescue divers found Peters’ body in 8 feet of water about 100 yards from the park’s boat ramp.
Mother founded fund
His mother, Bonnie Peters, founded the nonprofit Aaron Peters Water Safety Fund to raise money for life-jacket-lending kiosks in high-risk areas.
The first priority is to build such a kiosk at Oxbow Regional Park, Lilly said.
Monday’s demonstration stations will focus on life jacket fitting, wetsuit use, line and life ring throwing, and general safety precautions near water.
For more information, call Lilly at 360-565-3668.
For more information on the water safety fund, see www.apwsf.com.
