Our family had spent many, many summers boating in the Florida Keys.

In August 2017 we experienced a tragic emergency with our daughter, Harlie, a few miles from land. We discovered we were on our own!

We first used EPIRB, VHF and 911 several times, begging for immediate help. We were told to drive ourselves to Venture Out docks. We were in a dead zone between the more popular islands. A man who tows boats heard the distress calls, got us to shore!

If that man wasn't there that day... we would have been stranded a couple miles from shore indefinitely! USCG would have got to us eventually...but their station was too far away!

Monroe County Fire Rescue was first at Venture Out WAITING at docks for us, Police, Paramedics, and FWC officers were there, also WAITING for us.

Having to get to shore with NO MEDICAL HELP was a traumatizing experience we endured with our daughter, which unfortunately can NEVER be forgotten! We now know that 100's of miles of Monroe County shores, almost all of the Florida Keys has inadequate coverage of FIRE/EMS boats to assist in an emergency.

Our plan and wish is that NO other family should ever have to feel so helpless and go through the terror we did that day in the Florida Keys.

Monroe County has over 26,000 registered vessels and is a huge boating destination for thousands of tourist!

Please help us bring awareness and resources to Monroe County in a joint effort to increase public safety for all boaters. Our goal is to get Medical/Fire response boats for Monroe County ASAP in an effort to jumpstart a much needed marine program, the first being in Islamorada.

We hope to eliminate the dead zones one by one!

Please help our family & Harlie make a difference.