Family Raising Money For Local Dive Team After Girl Drowns

[PinkFloyd]

CAMERON, Mo. -- Five days after a Cameron girl drowned trying to save her eight-year-old friend, the fathers of both children were speaking out on Thursday.

The fathers were setting up a memorial fund in the name of Olivia Lee Kennedy to fund a dive rescue team in Cameron.

The two fathers said seconds count and on Sunday the closest dive team was based more than an hour away. On Thursday, they spoke about the tragedy and their hopes to avoid another.

It took the dive team from Bethany, Mo. more than an hour to reach rural DeKalb County on Sunday afternoon. By then a neighbor had rescued eight-year-old Dakota Martin from a backyard pond. But it was too late for Dakota's life-long friend Olivia.

"I just want you guys to know that I miss my daughter very much," Clinton Kennedy said.

"Dakota will never forget his friend and hero Olivia and nobody should forget her heroic actions that day trying to save Dakota," Ben Martin said.

Martin said his son woke up in the hospital thinking Olivia had been rescued too.

"He got real upset, he told me he didn't understand," Martin said.

Both fathers said they had warned their kids about playing near ponds and neither blamed the babysitter. They both just considered this a horrible accident, but it's an outcome the two fathers never want to see again.

So the two men are raising money to create a dive team in Cameron.

"My greatest hope that comes out of this is that we can get this dive team going," Martin said.

Martin said kids can be as naive as they are brave with so many ponds, reservoirs and state parks in DeKalb county. He believes a dive team will be needed again. He just hopes they're closer next time. Cameron has six volunteer firefighters waiting to be trained in dive rescue.

To contribute to the Olivia Lee Kennedy memorial fund, contact the Horizon State Bank in Cameron, Missouri at 816-632-7000.

Rob Low, FOX 4 News