Amy Conley, 14, is being commended for thinking quickly and acting quickly to save a boy and his mother from a dangerous undertow.
“I’m pretty sure anyone would have done the same thing,” said Conley of her heroic act.
The teen was swimming in the waves at Kincardine’s Station Beach with her grandmother last Friday when she spotted the pair in distress.
A boy who looked to be about 10 years old was out in the waves when he lost his footing and the undertow pulled him farther out. His mother went into the water to try to pull him to shore, but she got caught up in the undertow too, said Conley.
She saw the pair waving their arms and quickly made her way to them and offered her help. She asked the boy to climb onto her back, then grabbed his mother’s hand and helped them to shore.
“I could touch, but they were shorter, so they couldn’t,” she said. She explained she wasn’t afraid for her own safety, not just because she wasn’t out of her depth, but because she was familiar with the beach and its undertow.
“I go to Kincardine a lot,” she said.
As well, though she is not trained in water rescue, Conley, a Venturer Scout with the 9th Guelph Scout Group, is trained in standard first aid and CPR.
Though she never got their names, Conley says the mother thanked her for her help before she gathered her children and left the area. Conley was happy to come to the aid of the strangers and would do it again. “I feel like I would have done the same thing whether it was someone I knew or not.”