Ingham County
Lifeguard shortage can create drowning risk
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Lisa MacDonald didn’t plan to be an advocate for water safety. But all that changed in August 2022 when her 19-year-old daughter, Emily MacDonald, and Emily’s boyfriend Kory Ernster, 22, drowned in Lake Michigan at a beach in South Haven. The two were going for a swim when a current carried them toward the pier, and they were pulled under. A bystander pulled both out of the water but neither regained consciousness. McDonald was a student at MSU at the time; Ernster was a recent graduate.