Jared Vigil was in the right place at the right time when he came upon a woman flailing in an icy pond and shouting for help.
Certainly, there was luck involved in how 14-year-old Vigil came to pull Connie Ostwald to safety Wednesday afternoon in a Louisville park.
But it was more than that. The eighth-grader had the presence of mind that many grownups wouldn’t have in the same circumstances.
The young man partially unhooked a strap on his backpack, edged onto dangerously thin ice and managed to pull 48-year-old Ostwald to safety.
Many of us would like to think that we’d have the courage to react the same way, but we can’t be sure.
Ostwald got in trouble when her dog jerked its leash from her hand and chased some ducks onto a partly frozen pond. The dog fell in, and in trying to save the dog, Ostwald went in too. She was able to boost the dog to safety but couldn’t get herself out.
This is one in a string of such incidents — dog owners going through the ice as they tried to save their pets, some dying in the effort.
Fortunately, this story ended differently, likely because of Vigil’s actions. At a time when teenagers frequently make the news in negative ways, it is an honor to have the opportunity to recognize the actions of a hero.
