‘You don’t let a hero just die.’ Mom brings life-saving rings to Pembroke Pines
The night 17-year-old Aden Spencer Perry dove into a dark pond in Sunrise to rescue a driver trapped in a sinking car, he didn’t hesitate. As he approached the dimly lit car, he called 911, handed the phone to his mom, Sarah, tied up his dog Apollo, took off his shoes and jumped.
Shortly after, the car, driver and Aden completely submerged.
Aden never made it back to shore.
In the more than three years since Aden’s death in April 2022, his mother has turned her grief into purpose, making sure no one else faces the same impossible moment her son did.
Through the Aden Perry Good Samaritan and Scholarship Fund, Perry has helped install nearly 600 bright orange “Hero Life Rings” alongside waterways statewide. This safety measure is meant to give bystanders a way to help without putting their own lives at risk, to “Throw, don’t go.”
Now, the City of Pembroke Pines is joining her mission.
Working with Perry’s foundation, the city has placed its first Hero Life Ring near City Hall and the Charles F. Dodge Center, with more expected to follow. Mayor Angelo Castillo said the partnership honors Aden’s spirit.
“She told me that she’s made it a life mission to raise money to buy these lifesaver rings, and work with cities that are willing to put them along the shore lines so that no mother ever has to deal with the pain that she’s had to deal with,” Castillo said. “From the second that she told me, I knew that we were going to be all in.”
After meeting Sarah Perry and hearing her story, Castillo said he called Fire Chief Marcelino Rodriguez to have him meet with her. Since then, the city has inaugurated its first ring and plans to have many more around its bodies of water.
“I think it’s a wonderful Idea and I hope none of them are ever used, but if they are, I hope they fall into the hands of someone who really, really needs them and who will get a second chance in life … and I love the partnership that we’ve created with her,” Castillo said.
Castillo said seeing Perry turn her personal tragedy into a proactive public safety program shows the impact one person’s dedication can have on an entire community.
“I just think it’s fantastic that she’s decided to pour her grief, not into just grieving, but into helping other people, that’s a beautiful thing,” Castillo said. “I’m sure that her son would be incredibly proud.”
For Perry, the life rings along the water mean safety and her son’s name lives on.
“He was a brilliant young man,” Perry said. “He was 17 years old and a junior in high school. He had a 5.89 GPA. That night, I had just found out he got a perfect score on his SAT, and he wanted to be a neurosurgeon. He had a will to help other people. He lived a life of service.”
She remembers Aden as focused but full of life, the kind of kid who stayed after school to help his peers study, organized neighborhood parades for veterans in collaboration with their community’s HOA and shied away from recognition.
“He was so humble,” Perry said. “He never wanted attention or his picture taken and now he moves his life out loud through his legacy.”
Always willing to help others
Perry remembers that night vividly, and it only reinforced who Aden was, she says.
“But he was just that kid and so when he did that, that night, I wasn’t surprised because that’s just who he was,” she said. “He was always that kid to help out other people.”
After Aden’s death, Perry said her home was filled with flowers and gifts from people who wanted to show their support.
“I didn’t want the flowers. I didn’t want the gifts,” she said. “People kept calling and wanted to do something, so I said, ‘Well, let’s put it in a GoFundMe account.’”
She named the account the Aden Perry Good Samaritan and Scholarship Fund and within a week, donations passed $140,000.
“I realized at that point this was going to be something big,” Perry said.
The foundation began by offering scholarships, SAT prep and tutoring for students, many of them first-generation college students, Perry says.
“Although my son didn’t get to go to school to achieve his dream,” she said, “every student that we help and goes to college takes a piece of my son with them. … My son is going to college with them.”
It was through the foundation that the Aden Perry Hero Life Ring Initiative took root, a program designed to prevent tragedies like the one that took Aden’s life.
“So it wasn’t until losing my son that I realized that there was nothing available for that sort of emergency,” Perry said. “That night, there was nothing available that Aden could have used to stabilize, and I’m on a mission to change that.”
Perry has donated about 600 life rings across Florida, from Coral Springs, where the initiative started, to Davie and campuses at Florida State University and Nova Southeastern.
She said she recently traveled to South Carolina and plans to go to Vermont.
“I feel that everywhere there’s a body of water, there’s a potential for a water emergency,” she said. “My goal is to make this statewide and even beyond, and hopefully a mandate one day.”
Foundation continues to grow
Perry serves on two drowning prevention task forces, one on the state level and one for the county. She says the number of drownings that happen every day is staggering and that the foundation’s growth has surpassed her expectations.
“I have to do what my son would want me to do, and that’s to keep going. I could have curled in a ball, and people would have understood that, but I owe my son so much more than that,” Perry said.
“So it’s in his honor, I now live his legacy. My son died a hero, and through that, he got the Carnegie Hero Award, he got two medals of Valor, and you don’t let a hero just die.”
As part of her work with the foundation, Perry says it is an educational effort with hands-on demonstrations, videos and appearances at city events, to teach people how to use the life rings safely and what to do if they are put in the situation of the driver, or of Aden.
“I give out window breakers and educate, and it’s mind blowing how many people, when you ask them the question if your car goes in the water, do you know what to do? They say no,” Perry says.
“I now also educate them on what to do if their car goes in the water, because I close my eyes and I could still see everything from that night and it’s not something I want anybody to have to move through.”
Though the grief of losing Aden is ever-present, Perry said it has given her a grounding purpose.
“I don’t think I’ll ever heal because Aden was my world. He’s all I had. He was my only child. But, it has given me a purpose,” she said. “It gives me a reason to wake up in the morning. Without this, I probably, to be honest with you, might not even be here.”
Through the foundation, Aden’s legacy lives on teaching safety, supporting students and inspiring communities to act.
The foundation continues its mission with a 5K run and walk event on Dec. 6 in Sunrise to honor and celebrate Aden’s birthday on Dec. 11, when he would have turned 21. Scholarships will be awarded.
Those who bring a bag of school supplies will get a raffle ticket for a chance to win a prize.
This story was originally published October 29, 2025 at 6:00 AM.
