Katy Area Girl Scout Receives Award for Quick Action in Saving Toddler
It happened so quickly that Isabelle didn’t have time to think. She heard someone splashing about in her family’s swimming pool, then turned to see her 2-year-old cousin floundering. Isabelle instinctively jumped into the pool to pull the toddler to safety.
The Junior Girl Scout recently received the Girl Scout Life Saving Award for her courageous actions. Girl Scouts of San Jacinto Council (GSSJC) recognized her efforts during an award ceremony on Tuesday, Sept. 17 at the Program Place for Girls. The event was attended by family and friends.
The terrifying incident happened on a hot, sunny day in May during Isabelle’s 10th birthday party. Family and friends had come to her family’s Katy home for the celebration. Isabelle says she was happy and having fun with her friends as they played the pinata game. The younger children hit the pinata first, then passed the stick to the older ones.
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Isabelle recalls her cousin, Giovanna, striking the pinata and leaving the line. Isabella hit the pinata next and returned to the line for another swing. No one was swimming, so when Isabelle heard the water splash, it caught her attention.
“I heard someone jump into the pool. I looked and saw Giovanna in the water,” Isabelle said. “Without thinking, I jumped into the water after her because I knew she needed help.”
Giovanna had jumped in the pool without the support of a puddle jumper. One of Isabelle’s troop leaders, Barbara Temple, helped Isabelle pull the toddler out of the pool. “The little girl could have drowned had Isabelle not been so quick to jump in after her,” Temple said. “Isabelle jumped in and grabbed the girl around the chest under her arms and pulled her up to the surface.”
Isabelle, center right, celebrating her heroic acknowledgement with herIsabelle was unflappable throughout it all. “She saw it as no big deal,” said her mother, Zehra Carrasco. “I was shocked and crying. She was like it’s just another day.”
Her mother says she regularly receives messages from troop leaders and Community Leader Team members praising Isabelle for her helpfulness and sense of responsibility to others. Isabelle says the Girl Scout Law teaches girls how to be friendly, helpful, courageous, and strong, and on that day, she believes she exhibited all those traits to save her cousin.
Isabelle is currently in fifth grade and wants to be a dancer when she grows up, or work for the SPCA and with animals. Along with dancing, Isabelle loves to play volleyball, swim, travel, and hang out with her family.
To learn more about Girl Scouts, please visit gssjc.org.
Source: GSSJ
