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Heroism by Girl Scouts just might run in family
Heroism by Girl Scouts just might run in family
Posted: Tue Feb 07, 2006 4:33 pm -0600
My cousin Deann Sufuentes sent this to me. I am posting it here to share with all of the family. Great job Taylor!
The following came from The Modesto Bee Online
Heroism by Girl Scouts just might run in family
Published: Sunday, February 5th, 2006
By GARTH STAPLEYBEE STAFF WRITER
Eight-year-old Taylor Lawry lives five minutes from her aunt's house in Merced. They attend Girl Scouts camp together every summer and they enjoy joint-family vacations.
'They're both ornery,' kidded Jeff Lawry, Taylor's father and brother-in-law to Deann Sufuentes, 39.
And now they're both decorated lifesavers.
The Girls Scouts honored Sufuentes with its Medal of Honor nearly 30 years ago for reacting quickly when her aunt suffered a seizure. Saturday, the organization gave the same rare honor to Taylor for having rescued her little sister last summer.
Can heroism run in a family?
'This is her glorious moment,' Sufuentes said of her beaming niece after Saturday's medal ceremony, held in Modesto at the annual meeting of the Girl Scouts Muir Trail Council.
Taylor, a competent swimmer, was splashing around the family pool in August when her mother, Donna, went inside to answer the telephone. Her then-2-year-old sister, Rhylie, was supposed to be indoors, as well.
'I went under water, and then I came up and I saw a ripple of water,' Taylor recalled. 'Then I saw it — a little hand.'
Taylor torpedoed over, grabbed Rhylie, boosted her head above water and eventually hoisted all 23 pounds of her out of the pool.
Another daughter, Baylee, 6, remembered rushing out with her mother moments later.
'Rhylie was crying and soaking,' Baylee said. 'If Taylor didn't save Rhylie, she would have died.'
Donna Lawry said she couldn't stop crying as she kept kissing and checking her daughters.
'I was hysterical,' she said. 'I was very upset, but Taylor was calm the whole time.'
The same little hand Taylor had spied that day held out a huge hero's bouquet Saturday while the audience cheered. A scouting official pinned a medal with a bright red ribbon on Taylor's Brownie vest.
Sufuentes — Donna Lawry's sister — advised the Peterson Elementary School third-grader to transfer the medal from vest to vest as she progresses through Scouting ranks. 'It stays with you for life,' Sufuentes told her niece.
Sufuentes' picture appeared in the Mariposa Gazette after a similar ceremony in 1977. Her quick thinking helped spare her aunt when the woman was supposed to be caring for the girl.
As epileptic convulsions banged the woman's head against a fireplace, Sufuentes moved her away, turned her over, opened her airway and phoned for help.
'I'm a nurse now, if that tells you anything,' said Sufuentes, who works in pediatrics at Mercy Medical Center Merced. She's also an assistant Girl Scouts troop leader and volunteers as the camp nurse each summer.
Donna Lawry is Taylor's troop leader. Lawry was a little girl when Sufuentes was honored and didn't immediately realize that her daughter was following in her sister's footsteps.
'It's one of the highest honors given in Girl Scouts,' said Debbie Miller, the council's marketing director.
Jeff Lawry noted that many adults freeze in fear during emergencies.
Maybe little ones don't know any better.
Or maybe heroism runs in the family.
'We just thank God,' Jeff Lawry said, 'she was there.'
_________________
Sincerely,
Dan Mestayer
www.mestayer.net/
The following came from The Modesto Bee Online
Heroism by Girl Scouts just might run in family
Published: Sunday, February 5th, 2006
By GARTH STAPLEYBEE STAFF WRITER
Eight-year-old Taylor Lawry lives five minutes from her aunt's house in Merced. They attend Girl Scouts camp together every summer and they enjoy joint-family vacations.
'They're both ornery,' kidded Jeff Lawry, Taylor's father and brother-in-law to Deann Sufuentes, 39.
And now they're both decorated lifesavers.
The Girls Scouts honored Sufuentes with its Medal of Honor nearly 30 years ago for reacting quickly when her aunt suffered a seizure. Saturday, the organization gave the same rare honor to Taylor for having rescued her little sister last summer.
Can heroism run in a family?
'This is her glorious moment,' Sufuentes said of her beaming niece after Saturday's medal ceremony, held in Modesto at the annual meeting of the Girl Scouts Muir Trail Council.
Taylor, a competent swimmer, was splashing around the family pool in August when her mother, Donna, went inside to answer the telephone. Her then-2-year-old sister, Rhylie, was supposed to be indoors, as well.
'I went under water, and then I came up and I saw a ripple of water,' Taylor recalled. 'Then I saw it — a little hand.'
Taylor torpedoed over, grabbed Rhylie, boosted her head above water and eventually hoisted all 23 pounds of her out of the pool.
Another daughter, Baylee, 6, remembered rushing out with her mother moments later.
'Rhylie was crying and soaking,' Baylee said. 'If Taylor didn't save Rhylie, she would have died.'
Donna Lawry said she couldn't stop crying as she kept kissing and checking her daughters.
'I was hysterical,' she said. 'I was very upset, but Taylor was calm the whole time.'
The same little hand Taylor had spied that day held out a huge hero's bouquet Saturday while the audience cheered. A scouting official pinned a medal with a bright red ribbon on Taylor's Brownie vest.
Sufuentes — Donna Lawry's sister — advised the Peterson Elementary School third-grader to transfer the medal from vest to vest as she progresses through Scouting ranks. 'It stays with you for life,' Sufuentes told her niece.
Sufuentes' picture appeared in the Mariposa Gazette after a similar ceremony in 1977. Her quick thinking helped spare her aunt when the woman was supposed to be caring for the girl.
As epileptic convulsions banged the woman's head against a fireplace, Sufuentes moved her away, turned her over, opened her airway and phoned for help.
'I'm a nurse now, if that tells you anything,' said Sufuentes, who works in pediatrics at Mercy Medical Center Merced. She's also an assistant Girl Scouts troop leader and volunteers as the camp nurse each summer.
Donna Lawry is Taylor's troop leader. Lawry was a little girl when Sufuentes was honored and didn't immediately realize that her daughter was following in her sister's footsteps.
'It's one of the highest honors given in Girl Scouts,' said Debbie Miller, the council's marketing director.
Jeff Lawry noted that many adults freeze in fear during emergencies.
Maybe little ones don't know any better.
Or maybe heroism runs in the family.
'We just thank God,' Jeff Lawry said, 'she was there.'
_________________
Sincerely,
Dan Mestayer
www.mestayer.net/
Dan- Expert
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