Child who drowned in Woodbury was celebrating his 9th birthday

The boy who drowned in Carver Lake in Woodbury over the weekend has been identified by friends and family as Geoffrey Compton. 

Geoffrey was celebrating his 9th birthday with friends and family at Carver Lake Beach on Sunday when he went missing around 6:10 p.m. 

He was pulled from the lake after about 15 minutes of searching. He had no pulse and wasn't breathing, and was pronounced dead at the hospital, police said.  

"We lost Geoffrey to drowning at his 9th birthday party at Carver Lake Beach yesterday," his mom Liz Zeron Compton, wrote on Facebook Monday. "Please pray for us, his twin, his older sister, the officer who found him for us, his classmates who were at the party, and the parents who had been watching the kids in the water.

"We are all entirely broken at losing this sweet, kind, earnest, beautiful blond boy," the post adds. 

A GoFundMe page has been set up to help the family pay for funeral expenses. As of Tuesday afternoon, it has raised more than $14,400.  

In an update on the page on Tuesday, the fundraiser organizer Carina Aleckson wrote: "I am amazed at how quickly we raise more than enough for Ellie and Liz to care for their 'blond boy' as he is laid to rest. They plan to buy him near their home so they can visit him every day."

Any additional funds raised through the Go Fund Me will be used for family expenses and offering a "bridge to new employment for Liz." 

In Compton's Facebook post, she said she'd lost her job 10 days before her son's birthday and was suffering with anxiety and chronic disease flare-up.

"Pray for me as I navigate this new, impossible loss, and trying to find work for next year. We're leaning into support from family, pastors, and therapists," she wrote. 

Geoffrey's drowning was one of several drownings or near-drownings in Minnesota over the weekend amid Minnesota's lifeguard shortage. There were no lifeguards at Carver Lake Beach on Sunday.