"GRANDSTUDENT" RECEIVES BOY SCOUTS' HIGHEST HONOR FOR SAVING LIVES

David's father, Mark, was in my class.

I also taught David's uncle, Brian, and his aunt, Shelly.

CONGRATS, DAVID!!!

 David's grandma, Carol, is the one that got me
into merit badge counseling . . .

Citizenship in the Nation
and
Citizenship in the World.  

I specifically remember attending his dad's wedding reception. 
It was held at the Joseph Smith Building.
While driving up to Salt Lake, it was being reported that
Princess Diana had been in a car crash, and had broken her arm. 

The award David received was for saving 2 people's lives!
This award has only been given 277 times in 114 years!
277 times out of 210 MILLION Boy Scouts!!!

David is currently a 5th grader!
 

Bloomfield Hills boy receives Boy Scouts’ highest honor for saving lives

David Williams, 10, of Bloomfield Hills, with his Honor Medal with Crossed Palms awarded to him by the Boy Scouts after saving two friends’ lives last year by pulling them out of a lake, pictured Tuesday February 25, 2014. He is only one of 277 Scouts ever to receive the award in the 104-year-history of the Scouts. (Vaughn Gurganian-The Oakland Press)

By Carol Hopkins, The Oakland Press

Posted: 02/26/14, 2:05 PM EST | Updated: 2 days ago

David Williams, 10, (left) of Bloomfield Hills, with friend Addy Hunter, 10, who David pulled from a lake along with her little brother last year, earning him the Honor Medal with Crossed Palms awarded to him by the Boy Scouts, pictured Tuesday February 25, 2014. He is only one of 277 scouts ever to receive the award in the 104-year-history of the Scouts. (Vaughn Gurganian-The Oakland Press)

David Williams was playing outdoors last March near a dock on Wing Lake in Bloomfield Hills when he called out to his 9-year-old playmate, Addy Hunter.
“She didn’t answer,” said David, who also was 9 at the time.
That’s when David, a Cub Scout with Pack 1046, went looking for her and her 3-year-old brother, Hayden, and found they both had fallen through the lake’s ice. Hayden was bobbing up and down in the water about five feet from Addy. David helped Addy out and grabbed Hayden from the frigid water.
Word got to the Boy Scouts of America and recently they presented David with the organization’s highest award, the Honor Medal with Crossed Palms, for saving a life or lives at extreme risk to self.
Denver Laabs, Boy Scouts program team leader with Great Lakes Field Service Council, Michigan Crossroads Council, shared that there have been 210 million scouts since organization started in 1910.
“Only 277 scouts have won the Honor Medal,” said Laabs.
David, now 10, receiving the award was “fantastic for David and his family,” said Laabs.
The award was presented to David, son of Mary and Mark Williams, Feb. 18 at the Eagle Scout and Silver Award Recognition Dinner.
The goal on the ice rescue day, March 13, 2013, was to build a snow fort, said David, an active dark-haired boy. He, Addy and Hayden had been driven to the lake by Addy and Hayden’s mother, Aubree. A exchange student was also with the family.
As Aubree was helping another son with his winter clothes, the three older children headed down to the lake.
The winter of 2013 had been alternately warm and cold, said Mary Williams, which affected the lake ice.
When Addy fell in, she said, “I didn’t know I was in the water.” The lake water was so cold, “it felt warm,” said Addy, now 10.
The Hunter children fell into an area of Wing Lake where the water dropped off.
When David spotted Hayden, the water was over Hayden’s head.
David grabbed Hayden’s hands and tugged. “He was frozen,” said David.
Because his winter clothes were water-logged, Hayden was “super-heavy,” said David.
The exchange student staying with the Williams family hurried and took Hayden from David. After Addy was helped out, she was able to walk on her own.
Hayden, recalled his mother, was “as pale as a ghost. He was shivering so much he couldn’t speak.”
Aubree, a nurse, drove everyone back to the Williams’ home, and got her son into a warm bath, where, she said, “he warmed up quickly.”
Boy Scout officials researched the incident before approving the special award.
The family learned he would receive the medal last September. David worried a bit about the Feb. 18 dinner, thinking he might have to speak before a crowd, “but it was actually really fun,” he said.
He met Gov. Rick Snyder at the event. “He was so nice,” said David.
The scout wants to be a vascular surgeon when he grows up, he said, “like my grandpa.”
David, now a fifth grader at Bloomfield Hills Middle School, shrugs off the attention he has received.
David, said Mary, reminds her of the scout motto, “He tries to do his best.”
In both situations he “thought quickly and was thinking of others.”
Both mothers think about how the day could have turned out.
“It was a relief nothing horrible happened,” said Hunter.
Mary Williams said, “We had a happy ending.”