Positivity: Passerby saves an 8-year-old boy

From Toronto (HT Good News Blog):

‘I saw his helmet bobbing in the water’
A passerby tells the story of how she saved an 8-year-old boy from being swept down the Fraser River

May 29, 2007 at 4:25 AM EDT

Kim Imrie was enjoying a sunny afternoon of inline skating along a popular trail in Quesnel last week when she heard screams that shattered the quiet of the day.

Suddenly, she was confronted with two small, hysterical boys who told her that their eight-year-old brother had crashed his bike and fallen into the swollen Quesnel River at the Johnston Bridge Loop near the centre of town.

The 27-year-old teacher had moved to town just nine months earlier from Richmond and was still getting to know its beautiful surroundings, which are what brought her to the Riverfront Trail Park with her Australian shepherd dog Brody last Wednesday.

The boy fell in the Quesnel near the point where it meets the Fraser River, 660 kilometres north of Vancouver. Both rivers are currently flowing higher and faster than normal due to the record snow melting from the region’s mountains.

Ms. Imrie tied her dog to a park sign and raced with the boys to the river’s edge, where their mother stood.

“When we got to the river a woman was standing in the water but she said she couldn’t swim. At that point I didn’t know who she was but now I understand that it was his mom. She was pretty scared,” Ms. Imrie said.

The teacher could see the boy, who was afloat thanks to a red and white Styrofoam bike helmet, and made an instant decision to help him.

“It was pretty horrific. I saw his helmet bobbing in the water. I took off my rollerblades and then in I went,” she recalled. “I don’t know if I hesitated. I don’t think so.”

Ms. Imrie, who teaches Grade 4/5 at École Baker Elementary School in Quesnel, described herself as someone “who doesn’t swim a lot.” She said she earned her bronze medallion 11 years ago, but when the pressure hit she remembered what she had learned.

“I think at that point my training must have kicked in and I grabbed him in a way that I remember from my swimming lessons,” she said. “The river was freezing. I honestly don’t know how close we were to the Fraser, but I remember thinking that I didn’t want him to be carried out to where they meet because I didn’t think he’d have much of a chance. That is kind of horrible to think about.”

By the time Ms. Imrie jumped in the river, park supervisor Alec Darragh had arrived on the scene after hearing shouts from his office.

“When I first saw him, it was only his helmet that could be seen. Kim was about 10 feet behind him. I ran down the river to be where I could be of some assistance. By the time I got there, Kim had caught up to the boy, grabbed him and brought him to shore,” he said.

Go here for the rest of the story.