The label \u201cgood Samaritan\u201d doesn\u2019t quite cut it for the Carriker family; try great Samaritan, or simply heroes.<\/p>\n
The family of five saved 17 passengers from a sinking whale-watching boat this July in Favorite Channel, north of Auke Bay, a display of grace under pressure that has garnered praise from boating safety experts and on Friday, official recognition from the Coast Guard.<\/p>\n
Coast Guard Capt. Shannan D. Greene, Juneau Sector Commander, presented the Carriker\u2019s with a Commander Coin on Friday at Mendenhall River Community School, where Erin Carriker teaches kindergarten. Erin, her husband Mike Carriker and their children Noah, Logan and Harper were all surprised by the ceremony, which took place during MRCS\u2019 weekly assembly.<\/p>\n
\u201cI was so shocked, it was really special. It\u2019s amazing to have my whole family here and to have this in front of my students,\u201d Erin said after the ceremony.<\/p>\n
She hopes the recognition helps spread the lessons she\u2019s learned from the ordeal.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt really can happen to anyone. That boat sunk in three minutes. If we weren\u2019t there, there was really no one else around, so you really need to be prepared and have an actual plan, just like you would if your house caught on fire.\u201d<\/p>\n
Alaska State Trooper Aaron Frenzel and Coast Guard boating safety official Mike Folkerts presented the award alongside Captain Greene and the Alaska Boating Safety Office\u2019s Kelli Toth. A friend of the Carrikers, Frenzel\u2019s presence at the assembly almost gave away the surprise.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt was a miracle they were there at the right time,\u201d said Frenzel, who nominated the family for the award. \u201cThere would have been fatalities if it weren\u2019t for their quick action. It\u2019s an amazing story.\u201d<\/p>\n
According to Folkerts, good Samaritans save more lives on Alaska\u2019s waters each year than the Coast Guard and State Troopers combined. The Carrikers\u2019 heroism sets a \u201ccritical\u201d example for Alaska\u2019s seafaring population.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe can\u2019t be everywhere at once, the state\u2019s just too big. Your neighbors will often be the ones to save you,\u201d Folkerts said. \u201cIn Alaska, if you don\u2019t have your neighbor\u2019s back, you\u2019re pretty well toast.\u201d<\/p>\n
In her remarks to the student body, Captain Greene shared a similar sentiment.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe cannot do our job without the rest of the community, and that\u2019s what makes Southeast Alaska so special,\u201d Greene said. \u201cBy the time my small boats got there, this family had already taken action and guided everyone to get their life jackets on. Because of that, nobody died.\u201d<\/p>\n
The school kept the award secret from the Carrikers prior to Friday\u2019s ceremony. Mike Carriker was told his wife was receiving a teaching award; Noah, 11, and Logan, 7, both attend MRCS. <\/p>\n
When asked what they did over their summer break, the boys have an unassailable topper.<\/p>\n
\u201cI thought we were going to sink because of all the weight,\u201d Noah said. \u201cEveryone has a responsibility to do what\u2019s right in that sort of scenario. \u2026 It\u2019s just very nice that the Coast Guard would give us this thank you.\u201d<\/p>\n
The Carrikers had only been boat owners for several months before the accident. On July 31, the family cruised on their newly-purchased recreational boat the \u201cSea Ya\u201d near the south end of Aaron Island, a rocky knob in the middle of Favorite Channel.<\/p>\n
At 12:45 p.m., their family day of fishing turned into a crisis. The Big Red, a Dolphin Jet Boat Tours vessel, struck a reef just yards from the Carrikers.<\/p>\n
The Carrikers first had to navigate close enough to the boat to begin deboarding tourists onto the bow of their boat while avoiding the reef themselves. They piled 17 passengers onto their 10-person boat, more than doubling the boat\u2019s capacity at 22.<\/p>\n
Fourteen passengers made it onto the \u201cSea Ya,\u201d while three clung to its sides as the \u201cBig Red\u201d slipped under. The family was able to pull the remaining three onboard while an unidentified man picked up skipper Kimball Ho, who was drifting away from the \u201cSea Ya\u201d in open waters.<\/p>\n
\u201cGoing into it, we were just trying to do what we needed to do,\u201d Mike Carriker said. \u201cWe did it because we were there, and you have to imagine anybody else would have done the same thing, but it\u2019s nice to be recognized.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u2022 Contact Sports and Outdoors reporter Kevin Gullufsen at 523-2228 or kevin.gullufsen@juneauempire.com.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
The label \u201cgood Samaritan\u201d doesn\u2019t quite cut it for the Carriker family; try great Samaritan, or simply heroes. The family of five saved 17 passengers from a sinking whale-watching boat this July in Favorite Channel, north of Auke Bay, a display of grace under pressure that has garnered praise from boating safety experts and on […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":427,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_stopmodifiedupdate":false,"_modified_date":"","wds_primary_category":4,"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[75],"yst_prominent_words":[],"class_list":["post-31485","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news","tag-local-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/31485","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/427"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=31485"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/31485\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=31485"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=31485"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=31485"},{"taxonomy":"yst_prominent_words","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/yst_prominent_words?post=31485"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}