Awards Given to Three Outstanding Water Safety Champions

Marlene Tare, Mark Breederland, and Chin Wu (top) were presented awards by Caty Simcek and Jamie Racklyeft (bottom).

Just as we follow the many drowning tragedies, we celebrate the rescues and honor those who help people avoid, escape, and safely save others from drowning. 

This year's Superhero of the Year Award goes to Marlene Tare, who witnessed a 15-year-old boy drown in Kenosha, Wisconsin in 2018 and decided to do something to help prevent it from happening again. Marlene convinced the police department to equip their squad cars with flotation bags, even offering $1,000 to help with the purchase. Earlier this year, a 15-year-old boy was rescued by Kenosha officers using those float bags. 

Our Volunteer of the Year is Mark Breederland, from Michigan Sea Grant. Mark has been actively supporting our mission for years and led months of planning for our big Great Lakes Water Safety (Un)Conference in Traverse City, which had to be cancelled due to the pandemic. His resilience and positive work ethic shined as we quickly pivoted to a series of Virtual Water Safety Jam Sessions, reaching several hundred people with lifesaving discussions on a variety of drowning prevention topics. 

Finally, this year’s Wayne and Toni Brown Lifetime Achievement Award was presented to Dr. Chin Wu, a civil and environmental engineer from University of Wisconsin–Madison. When Caty Simcek's grandparents, Wayne and Toni, started working in water safety in 1998, one of the pioneers in wave and current science supporting their efforts was Dr. Wu. Collaborating with last year’s winner, Dr. Guy Meadows from Michigan Tech, Dr. Wu is discovering ways to help make the Great Lakes safer through science, and has presented his findings at our water safety conferences. Caty was proud to present this special award to Chin, who is a humble and brilliant man. 

Please join us in congratulating this year's awardees for all they do to help make people safer around water.