An Ohio teen received a certificate Sunday to honor her for saving her young neighbors’ lives from icy waters.
Brookelynn Pruitt, 13, entered a frozen pond to save her neighbors who fell into the pond, WLWT reported.
Pruitt was braiding her horse’s mane when the horse began to get anxious.
That is when Pruitt noticed her two young neighbors, Hope and Nevadah, out on the pond.
“I seen them running around the pond slipping, sliding, just playing,” Pruitt said. “So, I thought it’s probably a good idea to check on them. I had a bad feeling something was going to happen.”
As Pruitt made her way towards the pond, she recalled that she heard the ice begin to break.
She witnessed Hope fall in, then Nevadah.
Pruitt said that with a combination of common sense and using what she learned from watching National Geographic, she was able to make the rescue.
“I broke a path through instead of walking out and getting caught in a hole. I knew I had to break a path through to them, so I had a clear way to swim them back,” Pruitt told WLWT.
“When I got to them, they were freaking out a bit still. So, I told the oldest one to grab on to me, and I’d hold on to her, and the oldest one grabbed on to the little one. So, it was like a little chain,” she continued.
The rescue was successful.
She walked the girls to their grandparents’ house and then ran to her house, WXIX reported.
Both neighbors escaped the situation without injury. Pruitt suffered minor injuries, which her mom, an emergency room nurse, took care of when she got home.
Russell Beckner, who teaches farm safety programs with his wife, watched Pruitt’s story on the local news and wanted to recognize her for her efforts.
So Beckner honored her with a certificate for her lifesaving efforts Sunday, with her two neighbors standing by on each side of her as she received her award.
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