Madeline Brindley of Conway was 6 years old when her father died after trying to rescue a drowning man at the beach, and when she grew up, water safety became her passion.
The 18-year-old made water safety her platform two years ago when she entered — and won — her first pageant. She won the Miss Outstanding Teen pageant, and she’s the reigning Miss Teen Conway International. A week ago, she was second runner-up in the Miss Teen Arkansas International pageant in Maumelle.
Brindley makes at least one speaking appearance a week to make a point to students about how dangerous the water can be, and she uses social media to get her message out.
“It does help going into schools with a crown on my head; it does grab their attention,” she said.
Her work — which also includes a self-published book, The Royals Go to the Beach — caught the attention of the
National Water Safety Congress, too. She received an award of merit Wednesday in Little Rock from the group. She was nominated by the Little Rock District of the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers.
A family tragedy started it all.
In June 2003, she was on vacation with her parents, Ken and Melanie, and her brother, Blake, then 3. The family went to Grayton Beach and stayed in the same beach house every year, Brindley said.
Her father attempted to save Larry LaMotte, 60, of Atlanta, Georgia, who was in distress. LaMotte had gone in to rescue his 12-year-old son, who was using a boogie board and got caught up in a strong current.
“My mom had taken me and the rest of the kids up to the beach house. We were in the beach house, and my mom just heard helicopters and commotion going on. I don’t remember the incident,” Brindley said.
Melanie Brindley said that from what she was told, her husband went out first to save LaMotte’s son. “[Ken] brought the son, apparently, to safety, … closer to where he could touch, and there were already people coming out; they grabbed the son,” she said. LaMotte was in deeper water when Ken tried to rescue him.
Ken was in the hospital on life support for two days before he died. Madeline Brindley said she vividly remembers the moment her mother told her that her father had died.
“I remember exactly what the room looked like that we were in. I remember my mom telling me — I don’t remember how I felt, because I was 6,” she said. “Dad had a special drink he would make me; it was really just milk warmed up. I wanted warm milk.”
Brindley said the beach house had a book in which guests could record their memories of the trip.
“After she told me, and after I got my warm milk, we sat down and wrote in that book. We said watch out for the flags on the beach and kind of wrote what happened. That’s one thing I really try to advocate — really watch for those flags.” A red flag, which warns swimmers of serious hazards (high surf and/or strong currents) in the water, was out that day, she said.
People often don’t know what the warning means, or they ignore it, she said.
“You’re just on vacation, so you’re going to go out in the water,” Brindley said.
Lamotte and Ken Brindley, a senior salesman at Acxiom Corp., were among the nine people who drowned over two days in the Florida Panhandle, and 40 people were rescued along a 30-mile stretch of beach in two counties that weekend.
Although she didn’t get many years with her father, Madeline Brindley remembers him and has heard great things from people who knew him.
“I remember certain events where I would have a bad dream, and he would come sleep with me. He was very big in the community; he would literally help anyone, and he died doing that. He was always smiling — that’s one thing we have in common; very positive,” she said.
When Brindley speaks to groups about water safety, she said she uses a five-step system: 1. Learn to swim or float; 2. Obey the posted signs and the flags; 3. Swim with adult supervision or a buddy; 4. Wear a life jacket; 5. Learn the procedures for rescue.
Approximately 10 people drown every day, Brindley said, and of that number, two are children ages 14 and younger. For every child who dies, another five require emergency care, she said.
“One statistic I like to use — over 80 percent of drownings could be prevented if you just put on a life jacket,” she said. “I think people think they’re invincible and they know how to swim, they don’t need a life jacket, or they don’t need to swim with a parent or a buddy. You don’t have time to put on your life jacket if your boat flips over. Usually, the life jackets — they’re underneath seats on the boat.”
Her latest project is to get a life-jacket-loaner station “at every lake that has a swimming area,” including Beaverfork Lake in Conway. “We definitely should have one,” she said. “I’m looking into getting grants.
“I also work really closely with the Corps of Engineers here in Arkansas at boat and marine shows.”
On Brindley’s suggestion, she and representatives of the Corps and the Coast Guard met with Gov. Asa Hutchinson to get May designated as Drowning Prevention Month in Arkansas. Mayor Tab Townsell also declared the same in Conway.
Brindley is community director in Arkansas for the Drowning Prevention Foundation.
“They’ve got community directors for most every state, but they didn’t have one for Arkansas,” she said. “I have conference calls with them once a month, and we bounce ideas off each other.
“I was thinking, ‘How can I get the message out there even more, something that would be different?’” Brindley said she suggested to her mom that they write a book, and her mother said, “Let’s do it.”
Brindley said she got in contact with Blake Collingsworth, the author of the book about water safety that she’d been using in her talks. He had a son who drowned, she said.
He put her in contact with a publisher, and she self-published 3,000 books.
“They’re in my dining room right now,” she said, laughing. Her website for the books is madelinebrindleywatersafetybooks.com., or for more information, contact her at m.brindley@live.com or go to www.madelinebrindley.com.
Brindley said she chose royals for her subject, “just because every girl wants to be a princess, and it’s about three little girls — Kate, Ellie and Maddie.”
Brindley said she’s not afraid to swim because of her father’s accident.
“I’ve been back to the beach multiple times; we’ve never been back to that area,” she said.
She and her mother went to a National Drowning Prevention Alliance educational conference in Dallas, Texas, a couple of months ago, Brindley said.
It included water-safety advocates, swim instructors, “just all kinds of people,” she said. Also attending was Families United to Prevent Drowning, a group of people who have lost family members to drowning.
“They are doing things in their communities like I am,” Brindley said. “I want to go every single year. It really gets you pumped up, and you want to do even more.”
Brindley said her goal is to reach more than 10,000 people with her water-safety message; she’s already reached 2,000.
Melanie Brindley said she’s proud of her daughter’s accomplishments. “She’s just taken something that’s been in our life every day and turned it around to do some good in the world about it,” Melanie said. She said she and Madeline will meet with families who have had a loved one drown.
“We’ve found people who want to find out how they can help to prevent more drownings, and also it seems to help in the healing process when you can connect with someone who has gone through the same loss,” Melanie said.
Madeline, who is being home-schooled this year, said she plans to attend the University of Central Arkansas in Conway and become an occupational therapist.
“I have a love for people with disabilities,” she said.
She plans to continue giving her water-safety message, too. It isn’t a passing phase, she said — it’s “a lifetime” passion.
“This is something that I want to do even without pageants,” she said. “I don’t know if I’ll do pageants this year or not. I’m kind of wanting to advocate this in my own way — just being Madeline Brindley.”
Senior writer Tammy Keith can be reached at (501) 327-0370 or tkeith@arkansasonline.com.