{"id":49307,"date":"2024-09-02T23:12:09","date_gmt":"2024-09-03T03:12:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/?p=49307"},"modified":"2024-09-02T23:12:20","modified_gmt":"2024-09-03T03:12:20","slug":"aaron-tillman-who-died-while-kayaking-remembered-as-gentle-giant","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/2024\/09\/02\/aaron-tillman-who-died-while-kayaking-remembered-as-gentle-giant\/","title":{"rendered":"Aaron Tillman who died while kayaking remembered as &#8220;gentle giant&#8221;"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">A Polk County community is mourning the loss of an 18-year-old high school student. The sheriff&#8217;s office said Aaron Tillman died Sunday while kayaking on Lake McLeod. Deputies recovered his body just after 5 AM Monday. According to the sheriff&#8217;s office, he went kayaking for the first time, didn&#8217;t know how to swim, and wasn&#8217;t wearing a life jacket.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-image\">\n<figure class=\"aligncenter size-full\"><img data-recalc-dims=\"1\" data-dominant-color=\"2531b5\" data-has-transparency=\"false\" style=\"--dominant-color: #2531b5;\" loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"639\" height=\"366\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1110px) 100vw, 1110px\" src=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/09\/Screenshot-60a.png?resize=639%2C366&#038;ssl=1\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-49309 not-transparent\" srcset=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/09\/Screenshot-60a.png?w=639&amp;ssl=1 639w, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/09\/Screenshot-60a.png?resize=300%2C172&amp;ssl=1 300w\" \/><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\u201cDevastated. It\u2019s never good to hear that somebody lost their life,\u201d said Scott Lineback.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Lineback said he\u2019s become familiar with Lake McLeod during the past three years, spending time at his in-laws\u2019 house there. He said he doesn\u2019t have any particular safety concerns about the lake, but notes his family always takes precautions.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\u201cBefore you even get past the bank, all the children, they have to have life preservers on. It\u2019s just a requirement,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The importance of life jackets was something neighbors around the lake stressed to Spectrum News on Labor Day, along with sadness for a life lost too soon.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\u201cI\u2019m just praying I can snap out of this. It\u2019s a dream. It\u2019s not reality,\u201d said Eryk Anglin, owner, principal, and head football coach at Ambassadors Christian Academy in Winter Haven.<\/p>\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-image\">\n<figure class=\"aligncenter size-full\"><img data-recalc-dims=\"1\" data-dominant-color=\"8b544d\" data-has-transparency=\"false\" style=\"--dominant-color: #8b544d;\" loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"386\" height=\"322\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1110px) 100vw, 1110px\" src=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/09\/Screenshot-60-1.png?resize=386%2C322&#038;ssl=1\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-49287 not-transparent\" srcset=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/09\/Screenshot-60-1.png?w=386&amp;ssl=1 386w, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/09\/Screenshot-60-1.png?resize=300%2C250&amp;ssl=1 300w\" \/><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Anglin said Aaron had been a student at the school since he moved to the area from Atlanta in February. This was going to be his first full year on the football team.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\u201cHe came in, he worked hard, and he was beginning to develop a great talent,\u201d Anglin said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Anglin said Aaron often visited the lake, but only waded into the water since he couldn\u2019t swim. He said this loss has hit the school hard.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\u201cA gentle giant &#8211; great, respectful, honorable kid,\u201d Anglin said. \u201cWhenever you give him a command or request, he fulfills it, and he gives 150% with everything that he does. He definitely doesn\u2019t deserve this.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-image\">\n<figure class=\"aligncenter size-full is-resized\"><img data-recalc-dims=\"1\" data-dominant-color=\"351106\" data-has-transparency=\"false\" loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"800\" height=\"532\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1110px) 100vw, 1110px\" src=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/09\/creating-a-death-vigil-plan-for-the-days-before-you-die-jpg.webp?resize=800%2C532&#038;ssl=1\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-49308 not-transparent\" style=\"--dominant-color: #351106; width:429px;height:auto\" srcset=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/09\/creating-a-death-vigil-plan-for-the-days-before-you-die-jpg.webp?w=800&amp;ssl=1 800w, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/09\/creating-a-death-vigil-plan-for-the-days-before-you-die-jpg.webp?resize=300%2C200&amp;ssl=1 300w, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/09\/creating-a-death-vigil-plan-for-the-days-before-you-die-jpg.webp?resize=768%2C511&amp;ssl=1 768w\" \/><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n<p class=\"has-vivid-red-color has-text-color has-link-color wp-elements-1 wp-block-paragraph\"><strong>A vigil is planned for 6:00 a.m. on Tuesday at East Central Park\u2019s football field in Dundee. Anglin said all are welcome.<\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>A Polk County community is mourning the loss of an 18-year-old high school student. The sheriff&#8217;s office said Aaron Tillman died Sunday while kayaking on Lake McLeod. Deputies recovered his&hellip; <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":49310,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_seopress_titles_title":"","_seopress_titles_desc":"","_seopress_robots_index":"","_seopress_robots_follow":"","_seopress_robots_imageindex":"","_seopress_robots_snippet":"","_seopress_robots_primary_cat":"14","_seopress_robots_breadcrumbs":"","_seopress_robots_freeze_modified_date":"","_seopress_robots_custom_modified_date":"","_seopress_robots_canonical":"","_seopress_social_fb_title":"","_seopress_social_fb_desc":"","_seopress_social_fb_img":"","_seopress_social_fb_img_attachment_id":0,"_seopress_social_fb_img_width":0,"_seopress_social_fb_img_height":0,"_seopress_social_twitter_title":"","_seopress_social_twitter_desc":"","_seopress_social_twitter_img":"","_seopress_social_twitter_img_attachment_id":0,"_seopress_social_twitter_img_width":0,"_seopress_social_twitter_img_height":0,"_seopress_redirections_value":"","_seopress_redirections_enabled":"","_seopress_redirections_enabled_regex":"","_seopress_redirections_logged_status":"","_seopress_redirections_param":"","_seopress_redirections_type":0,"_seopress_analysis_target_kw":"","inline_featured_image":false,"_uf_show_specific_survey":0,"_uf_disable_surveys":false,"wpai_generated_summary":"","footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"dois","default_image_id":71799,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"_wpas_customize_per_network":false},"categories":[14],"tags":[9622],"class_list":["post-49307","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news","tag-aaron-tillman-who-died-while-kayaking-remembered-as-gentle-giant"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/49307","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=49307"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/49307\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":49311,"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/49307\/revisions\/49311"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/49310"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=49307"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=49307"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=49307"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}