Ten years ago, Rohan Rumalla nearly drowned in his backyard pool before first responders flew him to a hospital and saved his life. Today, the rising senior worked to save other lives by raising over $6,000 for Grapevine’s Loan-A-Life Jacket program.
In 2017, the city of Grapevine established the Loan-A-Life Jacket program and installed five stations equipped with 130 life jackets around Lake Grapevine. Approximately 10 people drowned in the lake in 2017 before the stations were implemented. Now casualties have been halved each year thanks to swimmers having easier access to life jackets.
However, the city regularly loses a good portion of its stock and needs to refill its supply. Rohan estimated that an average of 60 life jackets could go missing over a summer.
“They hadn’t gotten any donations recently,” Rohan says. “At the time, it was pretty low on inventory and didn’t have a lot of money left over from previous donations. My goal was to raise money to keep the program afloat - literally.”
So Rohan started a GoFundMe fundraiser to raise money and replenish Lake Grapevine’s life jackets. Rohan says his goal was to fund the program for at least another five years.
“I initially wanted to set a $2,500 goal,” Rohan recalls. “But my mom told me, ‘You don’t know the power of Southlake. You should put a $5,000 goal.’”
Since then, Rohan has exceeded his original goal, raising $6,419 for the program. Rohan says his 100 donors have raised so much money that the assistant fire marshal mused adding more stations around the lake.
“I think it shows we have a lot of power as a community,” Rohan says. “You don’t have to be a mayor or city council member to gain support. You can just be a teenager with a mission and you can achieve great things and accomplish small acts of kindness. It’s possible in the world we live in today.”
To learn more about Grapevine’s Loan-A-Life Jacket program, visit Lake-Grapevine.com.