Chris Clegg
South Peace News
A near-tragic event occurred on Lesser Slave Lake off Hilliard’s Bay Provincial Park June 9 after two girls were left stranded on the lake aboard a plastic dingy (raft).
The girls, Diamond Calliou and Amy Syniak, are shaken by the incident but are recovering and doing well, says Diamond’s uncle, Ray Calliou.
A Calliou family post on social media credits Davy Matula, Marcus Matula, Ryan Herben, Hayden Blizzard (Herben’s son-in-law) and Shaw’s Point Staff Resort worker Weston Stevens for the rescue, which occurred about 10 p.m. as it was getting dark and time running out. The rescue occurred about four miles from shore.
“Our family thanks you from the bottom of our hearts for being there and rescuing our sister and her friend,” reads the post.
High Prairie RCMP
Const. Darren Martens, who says he played a lesser role in the rescue, was thankful for the volunteers.
“We basically lucked out,” Martens says of the find.
“I didn’t sleep that night, says Herben. “It was getting dark and we couldn’t put anyone else at risk.”
The girls left the shore at Hilliard’s Bay Provincial Park around 2 p.m. in a blow-up raft to hang out but things quickly turned for the worse.
“Due to the weather the winds started to pick up,” reads the family post. “This pushed them out farther and farther. They ended up trying to paddle back and lost both paddles. They jumped in to attempt to swim back. The farther they got out the winds picked up even more. They had no choice but to hope someone would come by.”
“It was real choppy, windy and smoky,” says Davy Matula.
To worsen matters, Martens says Syniak lost her cell phone in the lake and could not call for help.
Earlier, Syniak did try to call Shaw’s Point about 3 p.m. but the calls were dropping (not connecting).
Herben thought the calls might have been a hoax – Shaw’s Point is no stranger to receiving such calls – but when the RCMP contacted Shaw’s Point it was game on!
Martens credits Herben for his efforts.
“By the time I got there they had all the boats in the water,” he says.
“We lucked out, it was pretty scary.”
Once boats were in the water, rescuers conducted a grid search on the lake. Each boat was about a half-mile apart and did 10-15-mile sweeps of the lake.
Davy Matula says his son, Marcus, first spotted the girls, who were quickly hauled aboard. According to the Calliou family post, they were “cold, wet and exhausted.”
But safe!
The family adds it is every family’s worst nightmare.
“Monday evening our family received the worst call siblings can get. Our sister Diamond and her friend, Amy, went missing . . .”
They are more than grateful to the rescuers.
“Our family would like to find and give the volunteers that went out on their own to look for them and found our sister a huge thank you. If it wasn’t for them, we could have lost our sister that day. Our hearts are forever grateful for them.”
But for the rescuers, they all agreed what needed to be done had to be done and, in their view, nothing special occurred.
Herben says Shaw’s Point does a couple similar searches each year, usually from children or youth getting blown off shore.