Family honors loved one through life jackets [Video]

PHOENIX — Standing to the side of the boat ramp at Saguaro Lake with a brown roof, white signage and brightly colored life jackets is an offering of safety. 

The life jacket loaner station was the first in the state and is an introduction, of sorts, to 21-year-old Ryan Thomas.

“We miss him every day,” Shannon Liebrock, Thomas’ aunt and the founder of The Ryan Thomas Foundation, said. “So to be able to, in some way, introduce him to the people that never got to know how great he was, was really cool.” 

Thomas had a love for the outdoors, Liebrock said. That’s what brought him and friends out to Saguaro Lake to fish in October of 2008. 

“They were getting ready to dock the boat. And Ryan said he wanted to cool off …