A family in New Jersey is thankful for five young men who saved their two children from a frozen pond on December 17.
“Eight-year-old Olivia Heid and her four-year-old brother, RJ were sledding on Thursday at a country club in Middletown, when their sled flew over a ridge and into an icy pond,” ABC 6 reported.
Just moments before, dad Richard Heid said he watched in horror as their sled quickly gained momentum.
“You could see in their faces that they knew something bad was about to happen,” their mother, Stephanie Irlbeck, recalled.
However, when five teenage boys who were nearby heard the commotion, they rushed over to help.
“Me and Joey first saw them. I think we’re both thinking, should we like jump in front of the raft to try to stop it?” Drew Scalice told CBS New York, adding, “We couldn’t. It was going way too fast.”
Seconds later, 14-year-old Kieran Foley jumped into the icy water, rescuing RJ first, then Olivia.
The teenager handed each of the children off to his friends, who had formed a human chain.
“We definitely had to do something. We can’t just sit there and watch,” Foley stated.
Following the rescue, the young men said their Boy Scout training prepared them to help others in need, but they do not want to be called heroes.
“Honestly, I feel like I didn’t do much,” said Ryan Day.
“We hope that anybody would do that. It just happened to be us there,” Tyler Armagan stated.
Despite their humble attitude, what the boys did for his children was “amazing,” Richard noted, adding that it was “awesome to see little kids do that.”
Both he and Stephanie said the teenagers did not hesitate for even a moment when they saw what was happening and they deserve all the recognition in the world for their heroic actions.
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